Attachable device with flexible electronic display orientation detection

ABSTRACT

An attachable article, such as a wristband, includes a flexible electronic display disposed thereon in a manner that is bendable or conformable to a user&#39;s wrist or other curved surface and that enables various images to be displayed on the electronic display in a manner that makes these images easily viewable to the user. The attachable article includes an adjustable band that can be fit to different sized wrists, for example, and includes a band orientation detection and calibration routine that enables messages or display screens to be placed at particular locations on the band with respect to a user&#39;s wrist. For example, the display orientation detection and calibration routine may be used to determine the portions or positions of the display that are at the top of the user&#39;s wrist and at the bottom of the user&#39;s wrist, and may thereafter calibrate the display to center display screens on the display at these particular locations.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation application of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 15/233,932 (now U.S. Pat. No. 10,121,455), entitled“Attachable Device with Flexible Electronic Display OrientationDetection” and filed on Aug. 10, 2016, which is a continuationapplication of International Patent Application No. PCT/US2015/014964filed on Feb. 9, 2015, which claims priority to and the benefit of thefiling dates of: U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/938,107entitled “Attachable Device with Flexible Display and OrientationDetection” which was filed on Feb. 10, 2014, and U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 14/188,440 entitled “Attachable Device with Flexible ElectronicDisplay Orientation Detection” which was filed on Feb. 24, 2014. Theentire disclosure of each of these applications is hereby expresslyincorporated by reference herein.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This patent relates generally to electronic displays, and moreparticularly to flexible electronic displays incorporated into ordisposed on adjustable bands, such as wrist bands, to provide consistentdisplay and messaging functions to wearers of the bands.

BACKGROUND

Electronic displays are commonly installed within flat, hard surfaces ofelectronic devices, such as computer screens, television sets, smartphones, tablet computers, etc., and in many cases are installed onaccessories for the electronic devices, such as removable monitors. Manyelectronic devices having an electronic display are portable, and havethus become very useful in implementing mobile applications. This factis particularly true with smart phones which have become ubiquitous.However, unfortunately, typical mobile devices such as smart phones haveelectronic displays that are flat and rigid in nature. Thus, while thesedisplays are useful in implementing many different applications, thedevice on which the display is present must still typically be held in ahand, or must be stored in a pocket, a purse, a briefcase or othercontainer, which makes the electronic device less accessible in manysituations, such as when a person is carrying other items, undertakingan athletic activity such as running, walking, etc. Moreover, in manycases these traditional electronic devices require two free hands tohold and operate, making these devices cumbersome or difficult to use orto view in situations in which, for example, a person has only one or nofree hands or is otherwise occupied.

While flexible electronic displays are generally known and are startingto come into more common usage, flexible electronic displays have notbeen widely incorporated into easily portable items such as items ofclothing, wristbands, armbands, jewelry, etc. or on items that areeasily attached to other items, much less in a manner that makes theelectronic display more useable and visible to the user in manydifferent scenarios.

SUMMARY

An attachable article, such as a wristband, includes a flexibleelectronic display disposed thereon in a manner that is bendable orconformable to a user's wrist or other curved or even flat surface, andthat enables various images to be displayed on the electronic display ina manner that is easily viewable to a user. The attachable article withsuch a flexible electronic display may be attached to or worn on auser's body, such as in the form of a wristband, an armband, a leg band,or a belt, and may bend to fit the various contours or body surfaces onwhich the electronic display is located. The attachable article is alsoeasily attached to other items, such as mugs, cups, computers, phonecovers, bike handles, automobile dashboards, etc., that enable theflexible electronic display to be viewed when not being held in orattached to one's hands or arms. The electronic display of theattachable article is thus, in many cases, viewable to a user and iscapable of being manipulated or actuated by the user without having tobe held in one or both of the user's hands, making the electronic deviceuseable while the user is engaged in or performing other activities,such as running, biking, etc.

In one case, the attachable electronic device includes a flexibleelectronic display disposed on a flexible, e.g., bendable, substrate inthe form of a generally rectangular shape, with one or two end pieces orclasps attached to the substrate. For the sake of simplicity, such asubstrate will be generally referred to herein as a band or as part of aband, but includes other shapes besides an elongated rectangularsubstrate. Various electronics are disposed in the one or moreelectronic modules that may be within, for example, one or both of theend pieces of the band, or in a separate electronics module disposed inbetween the two ends of the band with the electronics module including adisplay driver for driving the electronic display to display fixed orchangeable messages, artwork, pictures, etc. The electronic module mayalso include a processor for implementing applications or programmingand a memory for storing pictures, images, messages, videos, etc. to bedisplayed on the electronic display at various times, as well as forstoring applications and application data, such as configuration data,to be used by applications for performing various display tasks atdifferent times. The electronic module may also include a battery forpowering the electronic display, the processor, the display driver, andother electronic elements, a battery charging device for charging thebattery either in a wireless or a wired manner, and a communicationsmodule that enables other computer devices to communicate with theprocessor, the display driver and the memory to provide new or differentimages or messages to be displayed on the electronic display, toconfigure the operation of the electronic display of the attachableelectronic device, etc.

The flexible electronic display may be fabricated using any desiredflexible electronic display material, such as any of various suitableplastics. If desired, the flexible electronic display may bemanufactured as a display having pixel elements disposed on separatefrontplane and backplane substrates formed of the same or differentflexible material. In some cases, such as the case in which e-paper isused as the flexible electronic display, a separate layer of materialmay be disposed between the frontplane and the backplane materials toform pixel elements. In any case, these substrate materials may beplaced together to form the flexible electronic display, which may thenbe disposed on the flexible substrate, such as a leather substrate, abendable metal substrate, etc., the combination of which can be flexedor curved in various manners to conform to the shape of a portion of awearer's body, such as a wrist, a leg, a waist, a foot, etc. or toconform to the shape of other items to which the attachable article maybe attached. In another case, the attachable electronic device mayinclude a flexible, for example, transparent, touchscreen interfacedisposed over or on top of the flexible electronic display to enable auser to input data or take input actions with respect to the flexibleelectronic display. In some cases, the inputs may be in the form ofgestures that cause the electronic device to operate in a predeterminedmanner, to change modes of operation, etc. In addition or instead, theattachable electronic device may include one or more pressure sensors,such as strain gauges or other pressure sensors, magnetic sensors, orother sensors that detect pressure or touch actions applied to the bandat various locations on the band. In still other cases, the attachableelectronic device may include one or more gyroscopes or other sensorscapable of detecting the orientation of the band or the electronicsmodule on the band with respect to the force of gravity, acceleration,etc.

The electronic display device, so formed may, for example, enable a userto have a single type or multiple different types of digital mediadepicted or displayed on the display at the same time, including, forexample, photographs, digital artwork created by the user or others,messages sent to or created by the user, reminders, notes that provideinstructive, educational or inspirational messages, e-cards,advertisements, personalized agendas, calendars, such as a personalizedOutlook® calendar, etc.

More particularly, the display driver may be configurable to drive theelectronic display by displaying thereon one or more images, messages,digital artwork, videos, etc., stored in the memory. The display drivermay display a fixed image via the flexible electronic display, maychange the one or more images being displayed on the flexible electronicdisplay from time to time, such as by accessing the memory and providinga new image to the display, may display videos, such as real timevideos, and/or may display other types of digital media. Likewise, thedisplay driver may display various interfaces or display screensassociated with many different applications at the same or at differenttimes or in different modes of the attachable electronic device. Forexample, the display driver may be driven by various differentapplications run in a processor to display a calendar interface, ane-mail in-box interface, an alarm clock interface, a keyboard interface,an step-counter interface, etc. These interfaces may be located on thesame place on the flexible electronic display and displayed at differenttimes and may be located at different places on the flexible electronicdisplay and displayed at the same or at different times.

In many cases, the band of the attachable article will be adjustable innature such that the band can be fit or placed on or around differentsized wrists, arms, legs, waists, etc. and thus overlap upon itself moreor less depending on the size of the wrist, arm, leg, etc. In one case,the electronics module of the attachable article may operate inconjunction with one or more sensors, such as a touchscreen, pressuresensors, strain gauges, gyroscopes, etc., disposed on or in the band orthe electronics module, to detect the orientation of the band when theband is disposed around, for example, a user's wrist, to enabledifferent images to be displayed at specific locations with respect tothe user's wrist (such as directly on the top of the wrist or directlyon the bottom of the wrist, etc.) In this case, the electronics modulemay use the sensors to detect the portion of the band that is at oradjacent to one or more specific locations on the wrist, such asdirectly on top the wrist or directly on the bottom of the wrist andmay, thereafter, configure the flexible electronic display of theattachable article to, for example, center particular screens at one ormore of these locations. In one case display screens may be categorizedas displaying public information or private information, so that displayscreens providing public information (such as artwork or other artisticimages, time/date information, etc.) are centered on the band at the topof the user's wrist or at the outer side of the user's wrist, whiledisplay screens that include or display private information (such ase-mail messages, text messages, etc.) are automatically centered on thebottom of the user's wrist or on the inner side of the user's wrist. Ifdesired, an electronics module may implement a band orientationdetection and calibration routine to determine which portions of theelectronic display or band are located at particular portions of auser's wrist, for example, to enable the device to display public andprivate display screens at fixed locations with respect to a user'swrist, even when the band is adjusted in length to fit different sizedwrists.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an example attachable article in theform of a wristband having a flexible electronic display disposedthereon and a first type of magnetic clasp.

FIG. 2 is a side view of the wristband of FIG. 1 bent to form a fixedlength wristband.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of an example attachable article in theform of a wristband having a flexible electronic display disposedthereon with a second type of magnetic clasp.

FIG. 4 is a side view of the example attachable article of FIG. 3 bentto form an adjustable length wristband.

FIG. 5A is a side view of an example attachable article of FIG. 1 havinga flexible electronic display disposed on a flexible substrate betweentwo clasps.

FIG. 5B is a side view of an example attachable article in the form of awristband having a flexible electronic display disposed over an entirelength of a substrate.

FIG. 5C is a side view of an example attachable article in the form of awristband having a flexible electronic display disposed on a centerportion of a flexible substrate.

FIG. 5D is a side view of an example attachable article in the form of awristband having a flexible electronic display disposed over a substratehaving two flexible end pieces connected by an electronics module.

FIG. 6 is a side view of an example attachable article in the form of awristband having a flexible touchscreen disposed on a flexibleelectronic display and a flexible substrate which are disposed betweentwo clasps.

FIGS. 7A and 7B illustrate a perspective and top view, respectively, ofan example attachable article in the form of a wristband having a claspmember at one end of the wristband and various magnetic members disposedon either end of the wristband to form an adjustable connectionstructure.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example attachable article in the form of awristband having an electronics module disposed in the center of thearticle with a non-magnetic connection structure used at the ends of theflexible substrate to secure the article in a loop.

FIG. 9A illustrates an example attachable article in the form of awristband having an adjustable clasping mechanism in the form of one ormore magnets, an electronics module disposed at approximately one thirdof the length of the band from one end of the band, and a touchscreeninput layer.

FIG. 9B illustrates an example attachable article in the form of awristband having an adjustable clasping mechanism in the form of one ormore magnets, an electronics module disposed at approximately one thirdof the length of the band from one end of the band, and a set ofpressure sensors or magnetic sensors disposed in the band.

FIG. 9C illustrates an example attachable article in the form of awristband having an adjustable clasping mechanism in the form of one ormore magnets, and an electronics module, having a gyroscope component,disposed at approximately one third of the length of the band from oneend of the band.

FIGS. 10A and 10B illustrate the manner in which an attachable articlewith an adjustable band causes the same portion of the band to belocated or oriented near a different part of a user's wrist when theadjustable band is adjusted to fit different sized wrists.

FIG. 11 depicts a flow chart of a band orientation detection andcalibration routine that can be used with an adjustable band toselectively provide display screens at specific locations on the bandwith respect to a wearer's body.

FIG. 12 depicts an arm band constructed according to the principlesdescribed herein.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram of an electronics module associated with theattachable articles of FIGS. 1-12.

FIGS. 14A-14E illustrate various example display images that can beprovided on the wristband device in different operational modes of thewristband device and illustrating different combinations of displayscreens providing different information at different locations on theband of the wristband device.

FIG. 15 illustrates an example computer system with a configurationscreen that may be used to implement or specify the configuration of awristband device having a flexible electronic display.

FIG. 16 illustrates a flow chart used by a processor to implement amessaging routine that selectively provides private messages to a userin a discrete manner using natural movements.

FIG. 17 illustrates a wristband device disposed on a user's wrist whenthe hand of the wrist is face down in conjunction with implementing themessaging routine of FIG. 16.

FIG. 18 illustrates the wristband device of FIG. 17 disposed on thewrist of a user's arm when the user has moved his or her hand to placethe hand palm up, in conjunction with the messaging routine of FIG. 16.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Referring now to FIG. 1, an attachable article 10 in the form of awristband device includes a flexible band portion 12, which is generallyrectangular in shape and configuration, disposed between two end piecesor clasps 14. The band portion 12 includes a flexible substrate 16 and aflexible electronic display 18 disposed on the substrate 16 to beviewable from the top of the band 12, as illustrated in FIG. 1. One ormore of the end pieces or clasps 14, each of which may be made of hardplastic or other rigid material, but could instead be made of a pliablematerial, may include various electronic components therein for drivingthe flexible electronic display 18 and for providing other electronicfunctionality for the article 10.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, one or both of the end pieces or clasps 14 mayinclude a connection structure therein that functions to connect the endpieces 14 together when the band portion 12 is bent, as illustrated inFIG. 2, to form a circular or oval band. In one case, the connectionstructure may be in the form of a magnetic material 20A and 20B disposedin or on each of the clasps 14, wherein the materials 20A and 20Boperate, when in close proximity to one another, to hold the end piecesor clasps 14 together. The magnetic materials 20A and 20B can each be apermanent magnet, or one of the materials 20A or 20B can be a permanentmagnet while the other material 20A or 20B can be a magneticallypermeable material, such as many kinds of metal. The magnetic material20A and 20B can be disposed at the longitudinal ends of the clasps 14 sothat the clasps 14 connect end-to-end when the band 12 is bent to allowthe clasps 14 to meet up with each other end-to-end, as illustrated inFIG. 2. In the case in which the materials 20A and 20B are bothpermanent magnets, the materials 20A and 20B may be disposed in ends ofthe clasps 14 so that opposite poles of the permanent magnets are facingoutwardly from the clasps 14 or so that the magnets have theirrespective north poles facing in opposite directions when the bandportion 12 is bent in the manner shown in FIG. 2 (e.g., so that a southpole of one of the magnets 20A and 20B meets or mates with a north poleof the other one of the magnets 20A and 20B). As will be understood, theconfiguration and placement of the materials 20A and 20B in the clasps14 in the manner illustrated in FIG. 1 enables the wristband device 10to be clasped in a continuous circle with a fixed or predeterminedlength so that the clasps 14 meet end-to-end.

In another embodiment illustrated in FIG. 3, the flexible attachablearticle 10, again illustrated in the form of a wristband, includes asimilar band portion 12 and end pieces or clasps 14. However, in thiscase, the clasps 14 have connection structure in the form of magnetsdisposed on the top or bottom sides of the clasps 14 (and possibly evena portion of the band 12) to enable the wristband device 10 to be foldedaround on itself in an adjustable manner as illustrated in FIG. 4, so asto create a wristband of variable length when disposed around orconnected around a wrist. As illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 4, magnets ormagnetic members 22A and 22B are disposed on or near a lower side of onethe clasps 14, and come into contact or react with magnets or magneticmembers 24A and 24B disposed on or near an upper side of the other oneof the clasps 14. In this manner, the clasps 14 may be disposed near oron top of one another during use and are thus connectable in variousdifferent positions with respect to one another, such as thatillustrated in FIG. 4, when the flexible band 12 is bent to form agenerally circular or oval member to be placed around a wrist, a leg, abicycle handle bar, etc., for example. In this manner, the wristband 10may be easily adjustable in size to fit various different sized mountingmembers. As illustrated in FIG. 4, the substrate or flexible material 16of the band portion 12 is illustrated as being flexed in a manner thatcauses the flexible electronic display 18 to be disposed on the exterioror outside of the band portion 12. Of course, in the configurationillustrated in FIG. 4, the magnets or metallic members 22A and 22B onthe one side, and the magnets or the metallic members 24A and 24B on theother side of the band portion 12 may slide with respect to one anotherin the longitudinal direction of the wristband 10 so as to make thewristband 10 variable in size or circular shape to fit around differentsized wrists or other mounting members. Of course, if desired, portionsof the members 22A, 22B and/or 24A, 24B could be disposed in the bandportion 12 in addition to or instead of in the clasps 14 and, if sodisposed, could still be considered as being disposed in the endportions of the band 12. Still further, any or all of the magneticmembers 22A, 22 b, 24A, 24B could be a single, long piece of material,as illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 4, or could be a series of magneticmembers disposed near but not contacting each other, to enable betterregistration of the north and south poles of the respective magneticmembers in various different longitudinal locations of the band 12. Thissecond configuration may provide for better adjustability of the lengthof the band 12 when both magnetic members 22 and 24 are permanentmagnets. Likewise, while the band portion 12 is illustrated as includingtwo end pieces, one or both of which may encapsulate an electronicsmodule that holds the electronics used to drive the flexible electronicdisplay 18, a single piece may be used to encapsulate the electronicsmodule and this piece or electronics module may be located anywherealong the length of the band portion 12, including in the middle of theband portion 12, at a distance that is about one third of the entirelength of the band portion 12 from one end of the band portion 12 andtwo-thirds of the entire length of the band portion 12 from the otherside of the band portion 12, etc.

Of course, the wristband device 10 could take on many differentconfigurations besides that illustrated in FIGS. 1-4. For example, as areference, FIG. 5A illustrates a side view of the wristband 10 similarto that of FIGS. 1-4 in more detail. In this case, the band portion 12is illustrated as including a flexible base or a substrate portion 16that may be made of any suitable flexible material such as, for example,cloth, leather, plastic or other material, while the flexible electronicdisplay 18 is disposed on the substrate 16. The clasps 14 may be thesame size as each other and may be the same height as the flexibleelectronic display 18 and the substrate 16 together. In another case,the clasps 14 may be larger in height than the flexible electronicdisplay 18 and the substrate 16 and, in this case, may stick out abovesurface of the flexible electronic display 18 and/or below the bottomsurface of the substrate 16. As noted above, one or both of the clasps14 may be or may include an electronics module 19 that holdselectronics, such as processors, memories, sensors, batteries, etc. thatare used to power and drive the flexible electronic display 18 and toprovide other communication functionality for the wristband 10. Ifdesired, the components of the electronics module 19 may be sealed orotherwise protected from water, air, dirt, etc. to which the exterior ofthe device 10 is exposed. For example, any or all of these electroniccomponents may be encapsulated in one or both of the clasps 14 in ahermetically sealed manner to prevent any direct exposure of thesecomponents to exterior forces and environmental hazards.

In another embodiment, as illustrated in FIG. 5B, an attachable articlein the form of a wristband 10 has the flexible electronic display 18disposed over the entire length of the substrate 16 and end portions 14,which may be part of the substrate 16. In this case, the flexibleelectronic display 18 spans the entire length of the band portion 12 andof the wristband device 10 and thus goes from end to end of the device10. The connection structure, in the form of for example, magnets (notshown in FIG. 5B) may be disposed in the end pieces 14 and/or, ifdesired, in portions of the flexible substrate 16 or in an electronicsmodule coupled to the flexible substrate 16.

In yet another configuration, as illustrated in FIG. 5C, an attachablearticle in the form of a wristband 10 has a flexible electronic display18 disposed on a limited portion of the flexible substrate 16 so thatthe flexible electronic display 18 is only disposed, in this case, inthe center portion of the band 12. Of course, while not shown, theflexible electronic display 18 could be disposed on any other portion ofthe band 12, including in portions offset from the center of the band 12and the flexible electronic display 18 could cover any desired amount orportion of uppers surface of the band 12. Here again, any desiredconnection structure could be provided in the ends of the substrate 16,including in the clasps 14, to connect the two ends of the band 12together.

In a still further case, as illustrated in FIG. 5D, an attachablearticle in the form of a wristband device 10 has a flexible electronicdisplay 18 disposed over a substrate 16 having two flexible end pieces16A and 16B connected by an electronics module 19 which, in this case,is illustrated is being disposed in the center of the flexible substrate16. The electronics module 19 may or may not be made of a flexiblematerial and in either case may still be part of the flexible substrate16 is desired. Moreover, while being illustrated in the center of thesubstrate 16, the electronics module 19 could be disposed at any otherlocation along the substrate 16 including at any position offset fromthe center of the substrate 16. Again, any desired connection structurecould be attached to or disposed in or on the end portions of the device10, including the ends of the substrate 16.

In another embodiment, as illustrated in FIG. 6, the wristband orattachable article 10 may be configured similarly to that of FIGS. 1-5D,but may also include a touchscreen interface 26 disposed over theflexible electronic display 18. In particular, in this case, thetouchscreen interface 26 can be a capacitive touchscreen or any othertype of touchscreen interface that is transparent in nature, and thuscan be laid over top of the flexible electronic display 18 to allow theflexible electronic display 18 to be viewable there-through. As will beunderstood, the touchscreen interface 26 of FIG. 6 is powered by andcontrolled by the electronics disposed within one or more electronicsmodules 19 illustrated as being disposed, in this case, in both of theclasps 14 to perform various different types of touch detectionfunctionality associated with a typical touchscreen display. Of course,the touchscreen interface 26 could be added to any of the wristbandconfigurations of FIGS. 5A-5D or to any of the other attachable articleembodiments described herein.

While the wristband device of FIGS. 1-6 is generally illustrated ashaving a flexible electronic display and a flexible substrate disposedbetween or including two magnetically coupled clasps 14, with at one ofthe clasps 14 possibly containing or operating as an electronics module19, other manners of disposing connection structure on the wristbanddevice 10 and of locating the electronics module 19 could be usedinstead. For example, FIGS. 7A and 7B illustrate an example attachablearticle in the form of a wristband device 10 having a single claspmember 14, such as one of clasps members 14 of FIGS. 1-6, disposed atone end of the flexible electronic display 18 and a set of magnets 22and 24 or other magnetic material disposed on or in an end piece or endportion attached to or formed as part of the other end of the flexiblesubstrate 16. In this case, individual magnets 22A and 22B are disposedin a spaced apart manner within the end piece 14 or are disposed in theflexible substrate 16 next to the end piece 14 and operate inconjunction with the individual magnetic materials 24 which are spacedapart and disposed on the other end piece of the band 12 to form asecure magnetic connection when the band portion 12 is wrapped around auser's wrist, for example. The spaced apart nature of the individualmagnetic members 22 and 24 enable the band 12 to be adjustable in lengthso that a pair of magnetic members 22A and 22B (on opposite sides of oneend of the band 12 or substrate 16) may meet up with any of a number ofdifferent pairs of magnets 24A and 24B (on opposite sides of the otherend of the band 12 or substrate 16) to enable the length of the band,when connected, to be adjustable. Of course, the magnetic members 22 and24 may each be permanent magnets, or one may be made of permanentmagnets while the other is formed of magnetically permeable material. Ofcourse, the spaced apart magnetic material configuration of FIGS. 7A and7B may be used in any of the embodiments illustrated in FIGS. 1-6.

Moreover, while FIGS. 1-7 illustrate magnetic based connectionstructure, other adjustable connection structure, such as any desiredhook and loop connection material, like Velcro, a buckle and holestructure, a snap fit buckle, etc. could be used instead of magneticallycoupled connection structure. As a further example, FIG. 8 illustratesan example attachable article in the form of a wristband device 10having an electronics module 12 disposed in the center of the band 12with a non-magnetic clasp arrangement used at the ends of the flexiblesubstrate 16 to secure the article 10 to a wrist of a user or othermounting member in an adjustable manner. In this case, a loop or bucklemember 30 is attached to one end of the flexible substrate 16 and hookand loop pads 30 and 32 (one being hook material and the other beingloop material) are attached to the end portions of the band 12. Here,one end of the band portions 12 may be looped through the buckle 28 andbent back to enable the hook and loop material pads 30 and 32 to contacteach other and thus secure the band 12 to a user's wrist or otherstructure. Of course, while the electronics module 19 is illustrated asbeing located in the center of the band portion 12, the module 19 couldbe located on one of the ends as well, such as near the buckle 28, or atany other position along the band portion 12, such as a third of thelength of the band portion 12 from one end of the band portion 12, afourth of the length of the band portion 12 from one end of the bandportion 12, etc. Moreover, use of the buckle 28 in FIG. 8 is notnecessary, and instead hook and loop pads may be placed at opposite endsof the band 12 to enable an adjustable connection between the two endsof the band 12.

FIGS. 9A-9C illustrate various examples of an attachable article in theform of a wristband device 10 that includes and adjustable clamp orconnection mechanism for enabling the ends of the band of the device 10to overlap one another by different distances when worn so as to enablethe wristband device 10 to be used on wrists of different sizes. Inaddition, however, each of the various devices in FIGS. 9A-9C includemechanisms for determining or enabling the electronics module 19 of thedevice 10 to determine the orientation of the band with respect to theuser's wrist when being worn to enable better operation of the displayfeatures of the device 10. While a magnetic connection or clampingstructure is illustrated in each of the devices 10 in FIGS. 9A-9C, othertypes of adjustable clamping or connection structure could be usedinstead and allow the electronics module 19 to be able to determine theorientation or positioning of the band or the display 18 when on the armor wrist of a user. In addition, while the orientation detection anddisplay calibration procedure described herein is described with respectto FIGS. 9A-9C when the devices of FIGS. 9A-9C are connected around thewrist of a user, the same or similar orientation detection andcalibration procedure could be used when an attachable article is placedor connected around other body parts, including arms, legs, waists, oraround other devices, like handlebars of bikes or motorcycles, etc.Likewise, the principles described herein for detecting the orientationand positioning of a band on a user's wrist with respect to FIGS. 9A-9Ccould be also be used with any other adjustable band mechanism, such asthat illustrated in FIG. 8, as an example only.

More particularly, FIG. 9A illustrates an example attachable article inthe form of a wristband device 10 having an adjustable claspingmechanism in the form of one or more magnets 22A, 22B, 24A, 24B such asthat illustrated with respect to FIGS. 7A and 7B and an electronicsmodule 19 disposed or centered on the flexible substrate or band support16 at approximately one third of the length of the band 16 from one endof the band 16 and two-thirds of the length of the band 16 from theother end of the band 16. In addition, the device 10 of FIG. 9A includesa flexible touchscreen interface 26 disposed over the flexibleelectronic display 18.

FIG. 9B illustrates another example attachable article in the form of awristband device 10 having an adjustable clasping mechanism in the formof one or more magnets 22A, 22B, 24A, 24B such as that illustrated withrespect to FIGS. 7A and 7B and an electronics module 19 disposed orcentered on the flexible substrate or band support 16 at approximatelyone third of the length of the band support 16 from one end of the band16 and two-thirds of the length of the band 16 from the other end of theband support 16. However, in this case, one or more pressure sensors 34are disposed in or on the band support 16 and are electronicallyconnected to the electronics module 19 to provide signals to the module19 indicative of pressure, strain, or force applied to those locationsof the band 16. While the pressure sensors 34 are indicated to bedisposed at various points along the length on the band support 16 onboth sides of the band support 16 near the ends of the support 16, thesesensors may be disposed along the entire band support 16, only on oneside of the support 16, or on any suitable portion of the support 16 forthe purpose of detecting pressure or force applied to the band support16 or display screen 18. Still further, the pressure sensors 34 may beany desired or suitable pressure sensors including piezoelectricsensors, strain gauges, etc. Additionally, any desired number of sensors34 may be used and these sensors 34 may be spaced apart from one anotherany suitable distance along the length of the band support 16. Likewise,the sensors 34 may be disposed in the center of the band support 16(from side to side) or offset from the center. Also, more than onesensor 34 may be located at any longitudinal location along the bandsupport 16. Alternatively, the sensors 34 of FIG. 9B could be magneticsensors which sense magnetic field strength, for example. In this case,the magnetic sensors 34 may detect whether one or more magnets on oneend of the band (used a part of the coupling mechanism) are near to orare interacting with magnets or magnetic material on the other end ofthe band. Here, the magnetic sensors 34 may be used to detect the amountof overlap of the ends of the band.

FIG. 9C illustrates another example attachable article in the form of awristband device 10 having an adjustable clasping mechanism in the formof one or more magnets 22A, 22B, 24A, 24B such as that illustrated withrespect to FIGS. 7A and 7B and an electronics module 19 disposed orcentered on the flexible substrate or band support 16 at approximatelyone third of the length of the band support 16 from one end of the band16 and two-thirds of the length of the band 16 from the other end of theband support 16. However, in this case, a gyroscopic detection element36 is dispose in the electronic module 19 and operates to detect theorientation of the band (or at least the electronics module 19 or otherlocation at which the gyroscopic element 36 is disposed). The gyroscopicelement 36 operates to detect the orientation of the band with respectto gravity or other acceleration force to which the element 36 issubjected. While a single gyroscopic element 36 is illustrated as beingdisposed in the electronics module 19 of FIG. 9C, this or similarelements could be disposed at other locations along the band (e.g.,within the support 16 of the band) and/or multiple gyroscopic elements36 could be disposed at various locations along the support 16.

Generally speaking, the embodiments of FIGS. 9A-9C include structure orelements, such as a touchscreen interface 26, pressure or magneticsensors 34 or gyroscopic elements 36 that can be used to assist theelectronics module 19 in determining the orientation or positioning ofthe wristband support 16 or the display 18 with respect to one or morefixed locations on a user's wrist when the device 10 is wrapped aroundthe user's wrist. This operation enables the module 19 to then calibratethe display 18 to place or center display information such as displayscreens at particular locations with respect to the user's wrist, suchas being centered on the top of the wrist, on the bottom of the wrist,on the inner side of the wrist, on the outer side of the wrist, etc.

To illustrate the operation of this band orientation and calibrationprocedure, FIGS. 10A and 10B depict the same wristband device 10 (whichmay be any of those of FIGS. 9A-9C) disposed around different sizedwrists, with the electronics module 19 disposed at the top of the users'writs in both cases. However, as illustrated in FIG. 10A, the point 37is disposed on the direct underside or bottom of the wrist, while inFIG. 10B, this same point 37 is disposed between the bottom of the wristand the outer side of the wrist, due to the difference in thepositioning of the band on the different sized wrists. Thus, if theelectronics module 19 were to try to place or center a particulardisplay screen on the flexible electronic display at the bottom of thewrist in both cases, the electronics module 19 would need to address theflexible electronic display 18 differently due to the differentadjustment of the band support 16 on the different wrists. Of course,this same phenomenon exists for placing a display screen at any locationwith respect to a user's wrist other than the top of the wrist, assumingthat the user always places the electronics module 19 at the top of thewrist when wearing the band. In any event, to correct for thisphenomenon, the electronics module 19 must detect the orientation of theband (e.g., the support 16 or the display 18), such as by detecting thepart of the band that is disposed at a particular location with respectto the wrist, such as the bottom of the wrist, for each different user.Moreover, if a user does not always place a particular part of the band,such as the electronics module 19, at a particular location on thewrist, such as at the top of the wrist, when wearing the band, then theelectronics module 19 must detect the orientation of the band withrespect to two or more locations on the user's wrist such as at the topand the bottom of the wrist, and calibrate the display with respect tothese two or more points, in order to be able to center or placedifferent display screens at particular locations on the band withrespect to the user's wrist.

FIG. 11 illustrates a flow chart 70 that may be implemented by a bandorientation detection and calibration routine which may be stored in amemory of and executed on a processor of the electronics module 19 toperform band orientation and display calibration to enable theelectronics module 19 to be able to place or center particular displayscreens at particular locations on a band with respect to a user'swrist, such as at the top of the wrist, the bottom of the wrist, theinner side of the wrist, the outer side of the wrist, etc. The routineis especially useful when the band is an adjustable band that can beadjusted to various different sizes to fit different user's wrists, forexample. Moreover, this routine can be useful when the module 19 isprogrammed or configured to provide public screens, such as those thatdisplay the time, date, images, etc. in more publically visiblelocations on the band, such as on the top of the band and on the outerside of the band, when the band is on a user's wrist, and is programmedor configured to provide or display more private displays, such ase-mail displays, text message displays, incoming phone call user IDdisplays, etc., on the bottom of the wrist or on the inner side of thewrist. In particular, in all of these cases, the electronics module 19needs to know the position of the band or the display 18 on the bandthat is directly adjacent to such wrist locations to be able to centerthe public or private display screens at any of these locations.

At a block 72, the routine 70 receives or detects an input to enter adisplay orientation and calibration mode. The block 72 may execute inresponse to a user instructing the electronics module 19 to enter theorientation and calibration mode, such as with a user input of any typeincluding via a touchscreen display, a remote signal, etc. In somecases, however, the block 72 may operate automatically when the band isfirst wrapped around a wrist so that portions of the ends of the bandoverlap. In this case, the electronics module 19 may detect therepositioning of the band using sensors (such as magnetic sensors)located in the band that detect magnet on one end or side of the bandbeing in close proximity to other magnets on the opposite end or side ofthe band, using strain gauges that detect a particular curvature of theband over a particular length (such that the band is curved into aloop), etc.

Next, at a block 74, the routine 70 requests the user to take one ormore preset or predetermined actions to enable the electronics module 19to be able to detect the position of at least one portion of the bandwith respect to a known portion of a user's wrist. For example, theblock 74 may ask the user to press the band or display 18 on thelocation of the display screen that is at the top of the wrist, thebottom of the wrist, one of the sides of the wrist, etc. In anotherexample, the block 74 may ask the user to press at multiple locationssimultaneously or in sequence, such as squeezing the band together atthe top and the bottom of the wrist. In still another example, the block74 may ask the user to place his or her wrist in a particularorientation, such as on a flat surface or level with the top of thewrist facing up and the bottom of the wrist facing down. In stillanother case, the routine 70 may merely ask the user or display a buttonto allow the user to start a band orientation determining procedure.

After waiting for the user to take the requested action or actions, ablock 76 detects the location of the display oriented or disposedadjacent to a particular wrist location. In particular, the block 76 mayuse signals from the touchscreen display 26 of FIG. 9A, from one or moreof the pressure sensors or magnetic 34 of FIG. 9B or from the gyroscopicelement 36 of FIG. 9C to detect the position at which the user touchedor pressed the band in response to the instructions of the block 74, orthe position of the band at the bottom or top of the wrist when thewrist is in a particular known orientation, such as level. In somecases, the block 76 may determine the amount of overlap of the two endsof the band to determine a position on the band as connected, that isdirectly opposite the electronics module 19.

More particularly, in the embodiment of FIG. 9A, if the user touched thetouchscreen 26 at the bottom of the wrist, or at both the top and bottomof the wrist simultaneously in response to the instructions of the block74, then the block 76 determines, from the touchscreen interface 26associated with the embodiment of FIG. 9A which point or points weretouched. In a similar manner, in the embodiment of FIG. 9B, if the usertouched the band at the bottom of the wrist, or at both the top andbottom of the wrist simultaneously in response to the instructions ofthe block 74, then the block 76 determines, using the signals from thepressure sensors 34, where the user pressed the band. To do so, theblock 76 may simply detect the highest pressure reading from the groupof pressure sensors 34 and use that as the detected touch location. Inanother case, the block 76 may interpolate between two or more pressuresignal locations to detect the location between those signals thatappears to have the highest pressure reading. In still another case, theblock 76 may, in response to a user input to start a calibrationprocedure, use magnetic sensors 34 disposed in the band to determine theamount of overlap of the ends of the band, and may determine theunderside or bottom of the user's wrist as the location directlyopposite (e.g., the same distance) from the electronics module 19 inboth directions along the band as coupled. Of course, other parts of thewrist could be determined in this similar manner. In these case, theuser request to take an action from the block 74 may be simply providingthe user with a calibration button that, when pressed or activated bythe user, starts the calibration procedure that determines the amount ofoverlap of the ends of the band. In still another manner, in theembodiment of FIG. 9C, if the user placed his or her wrist in apredetermined orientation, than the block 76 may determine from the oneor more gyroscopic elements 36 in the attachable article 10 whichlocations of the band are flat with respect to the force of gravity orotherwise detect the orientation of one or more portions of the band todetermine which portions of the bank are at the top of the wrist, thebottom of the wrist, one of the sides of the wrist, etc. based on thegyroscopic element readings during a known orientation of the band. Ofcourse, other methods of detecting user actions (such a touch events,shaking the arm in a specific manner, etc.) or detecting specificpositions of the band with respect to a user's wrist could be usedinstead, and any suitable combination of the structure and routinesdescribed herein with respect to the bands of FIGS. 9A-9C could be usedas well. In any or all of these scenarios, the blocks 74 and/or 76 mayoperate so that an orientation detection and calibration procedure willonly be performed when the two ends of the band are detected as beingoverlapping or are disposed in an overlapping manner around an exteriorobject (such as by the use of one or more magnetic sensors).

After the block 76 determines the associated wrist position of oneportion or location of the band, a block 78 may determine if anotherband position is needed. For example, the band orientation detectionprocedure 70 may require that the user identify two locations of theband with respect to an exterior object, such as first identifying thetop of the wrist, and then the bottom of the wrist. In another case, theroutine 70 may perform the position detection at the same wrist locationmore than once in order to assure a better determination, such as bydetermining an average of two or more position detections, for example.In the case in which a known portion of the band (such as theelectronics module 19) is not always placed at a known location withrespect to a user's wrist (such as at the top of the wrist or at thebottom of the wrist), then the band position orientation and calibrationroutine 70 may need to make two or more position detection measurementsin order to be able to determine which portion or position of the bandis at which position of the user's wrist. Moreover, detecting morepositions on the band (e.g., the position of the band at the top of thewrist, at the bottom of the wrist, at the inner side of the wrist and atthe outer side of the wrist) will generally provide for a bettercalibration of the display 18 with respect to the wrist. In any event,if another reading is needed, control is provided from the block 78 backto the block 74 which again asks the user to take some detectioninitiation action with respect to the band. Thereafter, the blocks 76and 78 repeat operations until all of desired or needed the bandlocations have been determined.

After all of the band positions or locations have been determined, ablock 80 performs display calibration using the detected position(s). Inparticular, the block 80 may set the specifically detected or determinedparts of the display as reference points for display screens to beprovided on the display device, such as the various display screens ofFIGS. 14A-14E. If desired, the electronics module 19 may then centerdisplay screens at or based on these detected positions, and may scalethe sizes of the display screens based on the distances between thedetected positions or based on the distance between a detected positionand a fixed position on the band, such as the center or the electronicsmodule, one or both ends of the band, etc. Furthermore, after thedisplay calibration has been performed, various public display screensor information may be reliably placed at or centered at more publicallyvisible positions of the band, such as at the top of the wrist or on theouter side of the wrist, while various private display screens orinformation may be reliably provided at or centered at less publicallyvisible positions of the band, such as on the bottom of the wrist or onthe inner side of the wrist, even though the band is adjustable inlength. While the calibration routine has been generally described ascalibrating the flexible electronic display to center display screens atthe detected points on the band, the calibration routine could beconfigure to offset the center of display screens at other points on theflexible electronic display in reference to the detected point(s) on theband and need not center screens at the detected points.

In other situations, indications of the locations and/or positions thatwere touched or otherwise indicated by the user are sent in a wiredand/or wireless manner to one or more other devices, for example, toanother computing device and/or to a cloud of computing devices. In anexample, the one or more devices that receives the indication of thedetected locations from the article 10 is a host device (e.g., a mobilephone, a laptop or other computing device, or a host cloud of computingdevices) that has a wired and/or wireless data connection with thearticle 10, and with which the article 10 has at least a partialmaster/slave relationship. The detected locations and/or positions maybe pre-processed on the article 10 (e.g., by an application 60 hosted atthe article 10) and the article 10 may transmit a signal indicative ofthe detected locations and/or positions to the host device or the hostcloud of computing devices. Additionally or alternatively, indicationsof the detected locations and/or positions may be directly being sent tothe host device or to the host cloud of computing devices by the article10 or by an application 60 running on the article 10 as the indicationsare received from the sensors 52. The host device/computing cloud mayuse the indications of the received detected locations and/or positionsto instruct the article 10 to perform corresponding actions related todisplay calibration.

In another example, the device receiving the indication of the detectedlocations and/or positions or the corresponding signal is a peer device,and the peer device transmits a signal or response based on the receivedindication of the detected locations and/or positions to the article 10.The article 10 then causes corresponding display calibration actions tobe performed based on the received transmission from the peer device. Ina similar manner, the indication of the detected locations and/orpositions or the corresponding signal may be received by a cloud ofcomputing devices, e.g. a computing cloud, which may be a host computingcloud or a peer computing cloud. The cloud of computing devicesprocesses the received indication of the detected locations and/orpositions, and transmits a signal or response based on the receivedindication to the article 10. The article 10 then causes correspondingdisplay calibration actions to be performed based on the receivedtransmission from the computing cloud.

Moreover, while the display orientation and calibration routine 70 hasbeen described herein with respect to performing display locationdetection and calibration when the display is placed on a user's wrist,the same or similar routine could be used to perform display orientationdetection and calibration when a band is looped around other body parts,such as legs, waists, arms, etc., as well as when the band is loopedaround other devices not being body parts. In an embodiment, eachcalibrated orientation for different locations on a person's body or inhis or her environment to which the band or device 10 may be attached(e.g. arm, wrist, leg, pole, backpack strap, etc.) may be saved at thedevice 10 (and/or at a remote location communicatively connected to thedevice 10) so that the device 10 may be quickly and easily re-calibratedwhen attached in known positions and/or around known objects.Additionally or alternatively, each calibrated orientation for eachdifferent user of the device 10 may be saved at the device 10 and/orremotely so that the device 10 may be quickly and easily re-calibratedfor future uses by different users.

Still further, while the functioning of a band and the routinesperformed on the band have been described with respect to a wrist bandthat is longer than it is wide, when laid flat, the same structure andtechniques can be used for other types of bands, such as arm bands. FIG.12, for example, illustrates an arm band 100 in which the display 18wraps around a larger part of a user's arm, as opposed to just thewrist. In this case, the band 100 may be wider than it is long when laidflat. However, in this case, the display 18 and the electronics module19 may be configured in any of the manners described above. For example,the same or a similar display orientation and calibration procedure asthat described in conjunction with FIG. 11 may be used in the armband ofFIG. 12, but this procedure may also include detecting longitudinalpoints along the length of the arm as well as (or instead of) pointsaround the arm.

FIG. 13 illustrates a block diagram of various electronic components,referred to herein as an electronics suite 38 that may be used ordisposed in the electronics module 19 to drive the flexible electronicdisplay 18. In particular, the electronics suite 38 illustrated in FIG.10 includes a battery 40 that powers a number of other modules orelectronic components including a microprocessor or other processor 42,a computer readable memory 44, which may be, for example, a flashmemory, a communication module 46, a display driver 48, a touchscreencontroller 50 and a number of sensors 52 and other secondary devices 53.The sensors 52 may include, for example, an impact sensor or stepcounter, one or more gyroscopic sensors or gyroscopes, temperaturesensors, vibration sensors, pulse rate monitors, pressure sensors,strain gauges, etc. For example, the sensors 52 may include any numberof any number of types of the sensors such as strain gauges, gyroscopes,accelerometers, compression sensors, tensional strain sensors,positional sensors, motion or movement sensors, pressure sensors,vibration sensors, temperature sensors, orientation sensors, gravitysensors, light sensors, and/or piezoelectric sensors, to name a few. Thesecondary electronic devices 53 may include, for example, an alarm ornoise creation device, a speaker, a microphone, a vibrator the operationof which causes the clasp 14 or electronics module 19 to vibrate, etc.Although FIG. 13 illustrates the sensors 52 and the secondary electronicdevices 53 as being integral with the electronics suite 38, in somecases, one or more of the sensors 52 and/or the secondary electronicdevices 53 are physically disposed at one or more other locations alongthe band 12 separate from the remainder of the electronics suite 38. Inthese cases, though, the separately disposed sensors 52 and/or secondaryelectronic devices 53 remain in communicative connection with theremainder of the electronics suite 38 (e.g., via a wired or wirelessconnection).

Similarly, although FIG. 13 illustrates the display driver 48 as beingintegral with the electronics suite 38, in some cases, the displaydriver 48 is physically disposed at another location separate from theremainder of the electronics suite 38. In an example, the display driver48 is disposed in a location that is proximate to the electrodes orconnectors of the pixel elements of the flexible electronic display 18,e.g., on the backplane of the flexible display 18 or at some othersuitable location. The separately located display driver 48, though,remains in communicative connection with the remainder of theelectronics suite 38 (e.g., via a wired or wireless connection) despiteof the remote locations.

As will be understood, the memory 44, the communication module 46, thedisplay driver 48 and the touchscreen controller 50, as well as thesensors 52 and other secondary electronic devices 53, arecommunicatively connected to the processor 42 and may operate to performvarious functions in conjunction with applications or other programsimplemented by the processor 42. Still further, each of these elementsis connected to and is powered by the battery 40 in any known or desiredmanner. Still further, the electronics suite 38 of FIG. 13 may includeone or more communication ports, such as communication port 54 (e.g., aUSB or other type of digital communication port) and a power or batterycharger input port 56. In this case, the power input port 56 may beconnected to the battery 40 and enable charging or recharging of thebattery 40 using any known or desired recharging circuitry andmethodology. Alternatively or in addition, the communications input port54 (in the form of for example, a USB input port) may be connected tothe battery 40 and provide power to the battery 40 for charging battery40, and the input port 54 may also be connected to the microprocessor42, as well as to the communication circuit module 46, for performingwired-based communications via the input port 54. Of course, thecommunication input port 54, while being illustrated as a USB-typeconnection, could any other type of known wired or physicalcommunication connection, including any desired serial or paralleldigital communication port using any number of pins or wires, as isknown in the art, an analog communication port, etc. Additionally oralternatively, the input port 54 may include a wireless input port forperforming wireless communications.

In an embodiment, the power input port 56 may be a wireless input port,and in this case may, for example, be part of a battery charger unitthat operates to charge the battery 40 using, for example, aninductively coupled charging technique. If the battery charger unit ispart of an inductively coupled charging system, it generally responds toelectromagnetic waves produced by an exterior charging unit (not shown)to charge the battery 40 when the attachable article 10 is disposed nearthe external charging unit. In another case, the battery charger of theinput port 56 may be a kinetic energy charger unit that converts motionof the device 10 (such as that associated with movement of an arm whenthe attachable electronic device 10 is in the form of a wristband) intoelectrical energy which is provided to charge the battery 40. Moreover,if pressure sensors, strain gauges, gyroscopic detection elements andother sensors are provided in the band device, then correspondingdetection circuitry will be provided in the electronics suite 38 todetect and process these signals.

As will be understood, the processor 42, which may be a programmable,general-purpose processor or a specially programmed processor programmedusing any desired type of hardware or firmware programming, generallycoordinates and implements the operation of the display 18 and theassociated electronic components as described in more detail herein. Thecomputer readable memory 44 stores various applications, including forexample the general operating system implemented by the processor 42,and various applications (illustrated as a set of applications 60 inFIG. 10) to be run by the processor 42 to implement various differenttypes of functionality via the wristband device 10 described herein. Thememory 44 may also store one or more data files 62, which may be, forexample, image or video data files associated with various images to bedisplayed on the display screen 18 at various different times. Stillfurther, the memory 44 may store application data that may be created bythe various applications 60 or the microprocessor 42 as part of theoperation of various applications 60 and to be used by thoseapplications 60 either during runtime of the applications 60 or at othertimes. If desired, the microprocessor 42 or one of the secondaryelectronic components 53 may include or be a clock that tracks thecurrent time, day, date, month, year, time zone, etc.

As an example, one or more of the applications 60 may implement variousfunctionalities typically associated with standard computers or othertypes of electronic devices such as personal handheld electronicdevices, including for example an e-mail application, an Internet orweb-browsing application, an alarm clock application, a calendarapplication, a music-playing application such as an MP3 application, avideo application, a digital picture slideshow application, a mappingapplication, an e-reading application which may provide books, notes,magazines or other types of articles, for reading by the user, etc.Still further, one or more of the applications 60 may operate on theprocessor 42 to turn the display 18 associated with the wristband device10 into a slave display device that may be tied to or communicablycoupled to an exterior master device that is generating content to bedisplayed via the flexible electronic display 18. The master device,which may be a smart phone or a nearby computer device, may bewirelessly connected to the electronics suite 38 to provide content tobe displayed on the flexible electronic display 18 and will typicallyhave more memory, and computing and processing power than the processor42.

The communication module 46 of FIG. 13 may include or use any type ofcommunication hardware/software/firmware that uses any desired types ofcommunication techniques to enable the microprocessor 42 to communicatewith exterior devices or sources. Of course, the communication module 46could include multiple different types of communicationhardware/software/firmware, including any kind of hardwire-basedcommunication module or wireless-based communication module. Asexamples, the communication module 46 may be a wired or wirelessInternet-based communication module that may provide wired orwireless-based, IP protocol communications between the article or device10 and other devices or a communication network such as a peer computingdevice or devices, a master computing device or devices, a server, acomputing cloud, and/or one or more other networks such as a LAN or aWAN to which other devices are communicatively connected. Likewise, thecommunication module 46 may include a near field communications (NFC)module, a radio frequency identification (RFID) communications modulefor communicating with, sending messages to and/or receiving messagesfrom RFID tags stored in other devices around or close to the wristbanddevice 10. In this case, the communications module 46 may decode signalsreceived from RFID tags in response to pings by the RFID communicationmodule 46 to identify the RFID tags or tag numbers (identifiers)associated with these devices. Likewise, the communication module 46 maybe a near field communication (NFC) module or a Bluetooth communicationmodule, which may perform near field communications or Bluetoothcommunications in any known or desired manner with nearby NFC orBluetooth enabled devices, thereby enabling wireless communicationbetween the wristband device 10 and other closely situated or closelylocated electronic devices. Still further, the communications module 46may include a USB or other type of wired communication module fordecoding and encoding USB-based communication signals to be sent out andreceived via the USB communication port 54.

As illustrated in FIG. 13, the display driver 48 is coupled to themicroprocessor 42 and to the display 18, and drives the display 18 topresent different images to a user and thus implement functionality viathe display 18. The display driver 48 may be associated with or use anytype of display driver technology associated with the various differenttypes of flexible electronic displays that might be used, including, forexample, e-ink or other bi-stable display drivers, organic lightemitting diode (OLED) display drivers, etc. Of course, it will beunderstood that the display driver 48 is connected to the various pixelelements of the flexible electronic display 18 to illuminate or causethe pixel elements to obtain or reach a color, a lighting level, anon-off state, etc., so as to drive the display 18 to present variousimages and other functionality as determined by the particularapplication 60 being executed on the microprocessor 42. In some cases,the display driver 48 may present various images, such as one or moreartistic renditions, patterns, etc. or other types of images stored inthe memory 44 as one of the images 62 to be displayed on the flexibleelectronic display 18. Such an image may be any type of graphic elementin the form of artwork, an indication of an association of the user witha particular university or other organization, such as a logo, a mascot,an icon, etc. In the case of a static display, and particularly when theflexible electronic display 18 is a bi-stable type of flexibleelectronic display, such as an e-ink type of display, the display 18might display a particular image or background image whenever the device10 is in a sleep mode, and thus in which the display driver 48 is notoperating to actively drive the display 18.

Of course, the touchscreen controller 50 is connected to a touchscreeninterface 26, such as that illustrated in FIG. 6, if such an interfaceexists, and receives input signals from the touchscreen interface 26.The controller 50 operates to decode these input signals to identifytouch events that occur with respect to the touchscreen interface 26.The touchscreen interface 26 may be a capacitive touchscreen interfaceor any other suitable type of touchscreen interface disposed over theflexible electronic display 18, and may be transparent in nature to thusenable the pixel elements of the display 18 to be viewable through thetouchscreen interface 26. Of course, other types of touchscreeninterfaces may be used instead or as well. In any event, the touchscreencontroller 50 operates to energize and control the touchscreen interface26, as well as to recognize and decode touchscreen events to identify,for example, the location of each touchscreen event, a type of atouchscreen event, such as a tap or a swipe movement, etc. If desired,the touchscreen controller 50 alone or in conjunction with the processor42 may operate to determine or recognize gestures that are input via thetouchscreen interface 26, such gestures being, for example, a slide, aswipe, a multi-finger pinch or any other type of gesture that includesone or more finger movements coordinated with one another. Each suchgesture may indicate an action to be taken on or via the device 10. Ofcourse, the wristband device 10 may include other or different types ofuser input devices, such as interfaces that include buttons switches,roller balls, slide bars, etc., disposed on, for example, one of theclasps 14 of FIGS. 1-6. Such user interfaces may enable the user toperform more rudimentary functions, such as scrolling movements, on-offpowering movements, mode switching, etc. that are traditionally enteredvia buttons or switches which can be actuated.

The sensors 52 may include any of various different types of sensors,such as one or more gyroscopes and/or accelerometers which detect(change of) movement of or the (change of) orientation of the band 12,rapid shaking of the band 12, etc. One or more of these types ofmovements may be considered to be a particular type of input, such as agesture to reset the device 10, to change a mode of the device 10, etc.Likewise, the output of such gyroscopes and/or accelerometers can beused by the microprocessor 42 to determine the orientation or directionof the flexible electronic display 18 to enable the microprocessor 42,or an application 60 executed on the microprocessor 42, to determine theproper orientation of the image to be displayed on the flexibleelectronic display 18. In some instances, such motion detection andposition detection devices might be located in two or more of the endpieces or clasps 14 or other electronics modules 19, to enable thedevice 10 to more accurately determine whether the wristband 10 isoriented around a wrist or other circular member or whether it isinstead laid out flat or oriented in some other manner. Themicroprocessor 42 or an application executed thereon may changefunctionality based on the detected orientation of the wristband 10.

In some cases, the sensors 52 include one or more pressure or forcesensors and/or strain gauges which detect pressure, strain, or similarforces that are considered to be an input to cause the functionality,behavior, and/or actions of the device 10 to change, e.g., provide auser indication of a calibration point or location, reset the device 10,change a mode of the device 10, change a presentation displayed on theflexible display 18 of the device 10, etc. In one example, two pressuresensors are positioned on or attached to the band 12 (e.g., as part ofthe backplane of the flexible 18 or as part of the support 16 so thatwhen the dynamically flexible device 10 is attached to itself in agenerally circular or looped configuration, the pressure sensors arediametrically opposed to each other.

Likewise, the sensors 52 may include step-counter or an impact-sensorlike and accelerometer, which might be used to count the number of stepsa user takes over a particular period time. Alternatively or inaddition, the sensors 52 may include one or more temperature sensors,which may detect the ambient temperature, the temperature of the skin ofthe user when the device 10 is being worn, etc. The sensors 52 couldalso include a blood-pressure sensor device, which might check bloodpressure or heart rate using known exterior blood-pressure sensor devicetechnology.

As will be understood, the various different electronic devices orcomponents disposed in or shown in the electronic suite 38 of FIG. 13may be used in conjunction with one another in various different mannersto provide a whole host of functionality for the attachable article 10,which might be beneficial in various different uses of that article.However, only some of these uses will be described in detail herein.

In a general sense, the flexible display 18 of any or all of theembodiments described herein may be manufactured as any type of flexibledisplay, such as an e-paper display, an organic light emitting diode(OLED) display, etc. and this flexible display, once manufactured, maythen be formed, curved or bent in various manners. Generally speaking,flexible display 18 may be made of two flexible substrates including abackplane flexible substrate and frontplane flexible substrate that areplaced back to back, next to one another, laminated onto each other, orprepared so that the frontplane is directly disposed on the backplane.In the case of e-paper, an additional layer of material such as anadhesive may be included in the frontplane and disposed between thebackplane and the frontplane. In some cases, such as with the use ofactive-matrix OLEDs, electrophoretic displays (EPDs), e-paper,electronic ink displays, e-reader displays, liquid-crystal displays(LCDs), or other active-matrix type displays, the backplane includes aplurality of semiconductor devices or elements, e.g., an array oftransistors and/or other elements, disposed thereon for driving orproviding energization to individual lighting, transmitting, orreflective elements disposed in a similar array on the frontplane or ontop of the transistors and/or other elements. The semiconductor devicesor elements may be formed on the backplane in any known or desiredmanner, such as by etching, dye cut forming, printing, sputtering,spin-coating, spray coating, other deposition or patterning techniques,or combinations thereof, etc. Likewise, the light emitting,transmitting, or reflective elements may be formed as any desired typesof light emitting, transmitting, or reflective elements using these sameor different techniques, and the elements may include light emittingdiodes (LEDs), OLEDs, e-paper, liquid crystal, etc. In the case ofe-paper, for example, the frontplane and the backplane may be formedwith black and white, oppositely charged particles suspended in a clearfluid which, when put in an electric field, will cause the black or thewhite particles to drift to the top of the display to create a whitestate, a black state, or an intermediate grey state. In any case, thesubstrate of the backplane and the frontplane may be formed of the samematerial or of a different flexible material, such as plastic orflexible glass, and these materials may have the same or differentflexibility properties, as long as both materials are able to flex tothe curvature needed for bending the electronic display 18.

More particularly, the flexible electronic displays illustrated herein,may be manufactured as a flexible display, such as an e-paper display,an organic light emitting diode (OLED) display, etc. Generally speaking,the flexible electronic displays may be constructed on two flexiblesubstrates, or may be constructed on one flexible substrate but havingat least two flexible substrates. The flexible substrates may include abackplane display area and frontplane display area placed back to backor next to one another. The frontplane display area comprises an arrayof optic elements (e.g., electro-optic elements) provided on a firstflexible substrate that are capable of displaying an image, while thebackplane display area comprises an array of semiconductor devices orelements (e.g., transistor elements) provided on a second flexiblesubstrate for driving or providing energization to the optic elements onthe frontplane. Materials suitable for use as the flexible substrate foreither the frontplane and/or the backplane include, but are not limitedto, various plastic substrates such as polyimide, polyethyleneterephthalate (PET), polycarbonate, polyethersulfone, polyether etherketone (PEEK), and polyethylene naphthalate (PEN). Metallic foils orflexible glass also may be used.

Preferably, the backplane display area comprises an array of thin filmtransistors (TFTs) provided on a transparent, flexible, plasticsubstrate such as PET. The TFT array may include switching and/ordriving TFTs, and additional elements such as storage capacitors, andinterconnect wiring. An individual TFT element generally is made bysuccessive deposition and patterning of conductor (i.e., source, drain,and gate electrodes), insulator (i.e., dielectric) and semiconductorthin film layers. The active semiconductor layer can be composed ofeither organic (small-molecule or polymeric semiconductors) or inorganicmaterials (such as amorphous silicon, low-temperature polycrystallinesilicon, graphene, carbon nanotube, and metal oxide semiconductors).

The TFT array may preferably comprise organic TFTs (OTFTs) based upon anorganic semiconductor described in at least one of U.S. Pat. Nos.6,585,914; 6,608,323; 6,991,749; 7,374,702; 7,528,176; 7,569,693;7,605,225; 7,671,202; 7,816,480; 7,842,198; 7,892,454; 7,893,265;7,902,363; 7,947,837; 7,982,039; 8,022,214; 8,329,855; 8,404,844;8,440,828; U.S. Patent Publication No. 2010/0252112; U.S. PatentPublication No. 2010/0283047; U.S. Patent Publication No. 2010/0326527;U.S. Patent Publication No. 2011/0120558; U.S. Patent Publication No.2011/0136333; and U.S. Patent Publication No. 2013/0062598, thedisclosure of each of which is incorporated by reference herein in itsentirety for all purposes. While OTFTs may include metallic contacts anda dielectric layer composed of silicon oxide (SiO₂) or another inorganicoxide or nitride (such as Al₂O₃, HfO₂, or Si₃N₄), a dielectric layercomposed of an electrically insulating polymer may be preferred.Exemplary polymeric dielectric materials include polyacrylates,polyimides, polyvinyl alcohol, polystyrene, polyester, polycarbonate,polyhaloethylene, epoxy resins, siloxane polymers,benzocyclobutene-based polymers. Other polymeric dielectrics aredescribed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,605,394; 7,981,989; 8,093,588; 8,274,075;8,338,555; U.S. Patent Publication No. 2011/0175089; U.S. PatentPublication No. 2011/0215334; and U.S. Patent Publication No.2012/0068314. Conductive polymers such aspoly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) maybe used as alternative materials for metallic contacts in OTFTs.

Preferably, the TFT array may comprise metal oxide TFTs based upon ametal oxide semiconductor. For example, the metal oxide semiconductorcan be selected from various mixed oxides including one or more ofindium, zinc, tin, and gallium such as indium zinc oxide (IZO), zinc tinoxide (ZTO), indium gallium oxide (IGO), and indium gallium zinc oxide(IGZO). In a more preferred embodiment, the TFT array may comprise IGZOTFTs. While state-of-the art IGZO TFTs usually include thick layers ofinorganic materials such as SiO₂, SiO_(x), Si₃N₄, and SiO_(x)N_(y) asdielectric and passivation layers, it is preferred that if the TFT arraybackplane comprises metal oxide TFTs, organic materials are used in atleast some of the dielectric and passivation layers, such that thethickness of the remaining inorganic layer(s) may be reduced to allowmaximum flexibility of the TFT array as whole. Metal oxide TFTsincorporating one or more organic layers are described in U.S. Pat. Nos.8,017,458; 8,097,877; 8,395,150; and U.S. Patent Publication No.2012/0223314, the disclosure of each of which is incorporated byreference herein in its entirety for all purposes.

In some scenarios, the frontplane display area may be laminated orotherwise secured onto the backplane display area. The frontplanedisplay area may be produced by forming a subassembly that comprises, insequence, a flexible substrate, a conductive electrode layer, anelectro-optic layer, and optionally, an adhesive layer to allowlamination to the backplane. In the case of an OLED display, theelectro-optic layer is sandwiched between two electrode layers.Generally, at least one of the two electrode layers is transparent,often composed of a transparent conductive oxide such as indium tinoxide (ITO). The electro-optic layer is composed of an organic materialcapable of emitting light when a voltage is applied across the twoelectrode layers. The organic light-emitting material may have a stackedstructure including a plurality of different organic layers. In additionto one or more emissive layers, the stacked structure may includeadditional layers such as a hole-injection layer, a hole-transportlayer, an electron-transport layer, a hole-blocking layer, and/or anelectron-blocking layer to enhance device performance. Individual OLEDelements may have different emitters (for example, a red emitter, agreen emitter, or a blue emitter) in their emissive layer to provide acolored image. Exemplary OLED device structures and materials aredescribed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,707,745, 5,844,363, 6,097,147, 6,303,238,and 8,334,545, the disclosure of each of which is incorporated byreference herein in its entirety for all purposes.

In the case of an e-paper display, the electro-optic layer may becomposed of an encapsulated electrophoretic medium. The encapsulatedelectrophoretic medium generally comprises numerous small capsules, eachof which itself comprises an internal phase containingelectrophoretically-mobile (e.g., black and/or white) particlessuspended in a liquid suspending medium, and a capsule wall surroundingthe internal phase. Typically, the capsules are themselves held within apolymeric binder to form a coherent layer positioned between twoelectrode layers. Most commonly, one electrode layer has the form of asingle continuous electrode, while the other electrode layer ispatterned into a matrix of pixel electrodes, each of which defines onepixel of the display. Electronic charges are applied to the capsules tobring particles of a selected color to the surface. Electrophoreticmedia and related display device structures are described in, forexample, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,930,026; 6,831,769; 6,839,158; and 7,170,670,the disclosure of each of which is incorporated by reference herein inits entirety for all purposes. In addition to electrophoretic displays,other e-paper display technologies include electrowetting displays, andelectrofluidic displays as described in, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos.7,446,945 and 8,111,465, the disclosure of each of which is incorporatedby reference herein in its entirety for all purposes.

To integrate the TFT array backplane with the frontplane for a completeddisplay system, the bottom or pixel electrode of the frontplane isconnected to the drain or source electrode of the switching TFT in ane-paper display, and the driving TFT in an active matrix OLED (AMOLED)display.

Various organic layers on either the frontplane and/or the backplane maybe formed on the flexible substrate by solution-phase depositiontechniques such as spin-coating, slot coating, die coating, printing(e.g., inkjet printing, screen printing, pad printing, offset printing,gravure printing, flexographic printing, lithographic printing,mass-printing and the like), spray coating, electrospray coating, dropcasting, dip coating, and blade coating. Inorganic (e.g., metallic ormetal oxide) layers usually are deposited by physical or chemical vapordeposition methods (e.g., sputtering), but may be solution-processed ifa soluble precursor is available. The layers may be patterned intospecific elements by photolithography, either by use of the intrinsicphotosensitivity of the layers (e.g., certain polymeric layers) or byuse of a photoresist (e.g., metallic, metal oxide, or small-moleculeorganic layers).

Moreover, it may be desirable to manufacture the flexible display 18 ina manner that maximizes the amount of the display area space viewable onthe top layer of the device 10, i.e., that is viewable on the band 12.Generally speaking, the backplane of a flexible display 18 comprises aflat surface, or a first display substrate, and has a display area withvarious electrical energizing elements (e.g., transistors) formed,printed, etched or otherwise disposed thereon. As is known, theelectronically energizing components on the backplane substrate of abackplane component are then operatively connected to electronicallyenergizable components, such as organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs),encapsulated electrophoretic media (e.g., as in an e-paper display),etc., disposed on or formed on a frontplane component. Both thebackplane substrate of the backplane component and the frontplanesubstrate of the frontplane component are flexible, and the backplanesubstrate and the frontplane substrate are positioned to thereby alignor connect various energizing components and energizable components toform pixels on the display area. In particular, the flexible display maybe made of two or more layers including a backplane display substrate onwhich various display elements, such as pixel elements, associated witheach pixel of the display are printed, etched or otherwise manufacturedin the form of, for example, transistors or other switching elements, asecondary or frontplane display substrate on which OLEDs, e-inkmicrocapsules or other electro-optical components that form black andwhite or various colors on the display for each pixel, and, in somecases a further flexible substrate layer that operates as a groundlayer. In some embodiments, such as in electrophoretic displays, thefrontplane and backplane are laminated together as frontplane andbackplane components. In some embodiments, the flexible display 18 maybe built in layers, e.g., starting with the backplane and ending withattaching the frontplane substrate. In some embodiments, as in the caseof e-paper or e-ink, the backplane and frontplane are first preparedseparately and then are aligned to provide register coupling between theenergizing components and the energizable components. In someembodiments, such as in the case of OLED, LCD, or electrowetting, thebackplane and the frontplane are prepared so that the electro-opticalmaterial (e.g., the frontplane) is disposed directly on top of thebackplane.

As will be understood, the wristband device 10 as described above can beconfigured and operated in many different manners to perform manydifferent functions at the same or at different times. For example, thewristband device 10 may operate to execute any number of different typesof applications including, for example, calendar applications, e-mailapplications, web-browsing applications, picture, image or video displayapplications, stop-watch or other timing applications, alarm clock oralarming applications, location based applications including for examplemapping applications, navigational applications, etc. In some cases,various different applications or functionality may be performedsimultaneously, and different sections or portions of the flexibleelectronic display 18 may be used to display information associated withthe different applications. For example, one portion of the flexibleelectronic display 18 may be used to illustrate calendar informationprovided by a calendar application, another portion of the flexibleelectronic display 18 may be used to illustrate e-mails associated withan e-mail application and a still further portion of the flexibleelectronic display 18 may be used to display a clock or stop watchassociated with a timing application. Still further, the applications 60executed on the device 10 may be executed on and display informationcomputed solely with the electronics suite 38 of the device 10. Inanother case, one or more applications 60 may be executed on theprocessor 42 of the device 10 to interface with and display informationreceived from external computing devices, such as a mobile phone, alaptop computer, a desktop computer, etc. In this case, the device 10may act as a slave display device or may operate in conjunction withinformation received from the external computing device to provideinformation, graphics, etc. to a user on the flexible electronic display18 of the wristband 10. The wristband 10 may communicate with externaldevices or an external network via any desired communication hardware,software and communications protocol, including any LAN or WAN basedprotocol, an NFC protocol, a Bluetooth protocol, an IP protocol, an RFIDprotocol, etc.

FIGS. 14A-14E illustrate various different types of displays or imageswhich may be provided on the flexible electronic display 18 of thewristband device 10 at various different times or even at the same time.For example, in one scenario illustrated in FIG. 14A, the display 18 maydepict a pattern, an artistic rendition or other image that isparticularly expressive of the wearer or user, including for example, animage provided by the user, a picture or a photo, an image of ahand-drawn sketch, a team, corporate or other organizational logo, amessage of some sort, or some other image that expresses some interestor personality trait of the user. Such an image might be displayedwhenever the wristband device 10 is in a sleep mode, that is, when thewristband device 10 is not being actively used in other modes. Moreover,such an image could be resident on the display 18 for long periods oftime whenever the display 18 is not in use, if the flexible electronicdisplay 18 is a bi-stable display, such as an e-ink display, whichrequires no power to hold the image in place once image is been formed.

As illustrated in FIG. 14B, in another mode referred to herein as anoffice mode or a calendar mode, the wristband device 10 displays acalendar screen and an e-mail screen or other images associated with orset up to provide office or business related functionality. Such a modemay provide multiple images that enable the user to easily view e-mails,calendars and to use other business related applications. Thus, forexample, the display 14B may provide a calendar of events, and may alsodisplay one or more e-mail icons, text messaging icons, etc., indicatinge-mails or text messages that may be available and viewable to the user.

FIG. 14C illustrates the wristband device 10 in an alarm/clock mode inwhich the flexible electronic display 18 provides an alarm or clockdisplay that may be generated by an alarm or clock application. An alarmmay ring by sounding a speaker (e.g., one of the electronic devices 53of FIG. 10) at a particular time according to a preset alarmnotification, by flashing or otherwise visually displaying an alarmscreen (as shown in FIG. 14C), and/or by using a gyroscope oraccelerometer to vibrate the device 10 to cause a vibration indicatingan alarm. Still further, as illustrated FIG. 14D, the wristband device10 may be placed in an exercise or training mode in which the flexibleelectronic display 18 displays a stopwatch, a distance traveled or otherindications of various athletic parameters that have been met orassociated with an exercise routine including, for example, use of thestep counter to determine the number of steps that have been taken, todetermine the number of lifts that have been performed when, forexample, lifting weights, etc. Likewise, in such a mode, the display 18may display a distance traveled by a runner or walker, the time sincethe beginning of a run or other exercise, etc. Still further, asillustrated in FIG. 14D, a portion of the display 18 may be used toindicate one or more music files that a user has indicated as desiredtraining music via a music application implemented on the article 10.Additionally, the display 18 may include a section showing a currentheart rate of the user, e.g., as detected by a heart rate monitorincluded on the device 10. Note that in FIG. 14D, the heart rate monitorof the display 18 is oriented so that when the device 10 is attachedaround the wrist of the user, the heart rate display is oriented on theinside of the user's wrist in a direction that enables the user toquickly view the information displayed thereon.

In a still further mode, illustrated in FIG. 14E, the wristband devicemight be a slave display to another computer device, such as anavigation device within a car, a phone, a laptop computer, an e-reader.In this case, the display 18 may display, for example, a map, a route,directions, etc. on a map as provided by a navigation device to thewristband device 10 via, for example, a Bluetooth communication moduleor other communication module that provides communication between thewristband device 10 and the navigation device (not shown). Such a slavedisplay might enable the wristband device 10 to be more visible to theuser in a driving situation. For example, the wristband device 10 may beattached around a person's wrist or around a stand or other supportwithin a vehicle so that the display 18 is visible to the driver or to apassenger. Of course, other types of visuals and displays can beprovided with other types of applications stored on the wristband device10 or in other communicatively coupled computer devices, such as phonesor computers, that communicate with the wristband device 10 to provideimages or information for display to the user. For example, FIG. 14Eincludes an additional portion of the display 18 presenting thereon aslave display of other selected applications such as an email mailbox, atext messaging application, and a music application as hosted on anotherdevice (e.g., on a smartphone or other portable wireless device). InFIG. 14E, the additional portion is oriented so that when the device 10is attached around the wrist of the user or around differently-sizedin-vehicle support structures, the slave display of the applicationicons are oriented in a direction suitable for viewing.

The user may be able to program or configure the device 10 to operate inany desired manner, including any desired default manner, based on thedetected location, position, orientation, or movement of the device 10.In this case, a configuration application may be executed in a processorof a computer device to develop or configure the operation of thewristband device 10, including the various operational modes of thedevice 10, the various default settings based on the mode of the device10, the motions or actions or locations that may trigger particularmodes of the device 10, inputs or gestures associated with each mode orapplication of the device 10 and what those inputs or gestures may meanin the context of the device 10, etc. As an example, FIG. 15 illustratesa computer 150 having a processor 152, a memory 154 and a display 156.The memory 154 stores a configuration application 158 that may executeon the processor 152 to enable a user to configure the operation of thewristband device 10. In particular, the configuration application 158,when executed, may produce a configuration screen such as theconfiguration screen 160 illustrated in FIG. 15. The configurationscreen 160 may display an image of the wristband device 162 toillustrate what will be displayed on the display 18 of the wristbanddevice 10 at various times, and the manner in which this informationwill be displayed, such as the orientation, position on the display 18,etc.

In addition, as illustrated in FIG. 15, the configuration screen 160 maypresent a number of boxes or drop down menus, etc. which can be used todefine various modes or other operational settings of the device 10 andthe default operation of the device 10 during each such mode. Forexample, a user may select one of a set of mode boxes 170 to define theconfiguration of a particular mode of the device 10. The user may selecta sleep mode box, an office mode box, an exercise mode box, a home modebox, a car mode, or may select an “other” box to define a new mode forwhich the device 10 is to be configured. Upon selecting the appropriatemode box 170, the user may be presented with information or optionsabout the default and other operations of the device 10 during theselected mode. For example, the user may be able to define the actions172, locations 174, e.g., as defined by the exterior strips 100 (e.g.,of FIGS. 20-21) that might be used to enter a particular mode.Thereafter, another set of menus or drop down boxes or windows may beused to enable a user to define the placement, content, orientation,etc. or other display features 176 of information to be displayed on theflexible electronic display 18. Still further, the user may select oneor more applications 178 to execute during a particular mode, theplacement, size and area of the screen associated with the applicationdisplay, the orientation of the display on the screen, the backgroundfeatures, borders features or other screen indicia, etc. Likewise, theuser may define one or more RFID tag ids or other ids to define exteriorlocations that are to be associated with or that cause the wristbanddevice 10 to enter or operate in a particular mode. In this manner, theconfiguration application 158 enables the wristband 10 to have defaultfunctionality based on the functions to be provided, based on thelocation of the device 10, based on its orientation or position aroundthe wrist or not being connected around the wrist, based on movement ofthe device 10, etc.

In another case, the configuration screen 160 may enable the user todefine one or more gestures 180 associated with a particular mode or aparticular application on the device 10. Thus, for example, the usermight define a gesture that, when detected on the touchscreen interface26 of the device 10, such as a swipe gesture, a pinch gesture, a doubletap gesture, etc. causes the device 10 to operate in a certain manner,such as to switch between modes, to change orientation of the image onthe display 18, to cause portions of the displayed information to moveor to appear or disappear, or to cause a particular action within anapplication, such as to pull up new information, etc. Thus, using theconfiguration application screen 160, the user may define variousdifferent gestures or may preprogram various gestures to define desireddevice functionality, such as switching between modes, turning on andoff the device or applications, switching applications, moving images orcontent of particular applications on the display 18, taking actionswithin an application, etc. As a further example, one gesture may bedefined by the user to unlock the device 10 or allow operation of thedevice 10 such as implementing a locking or security feature. In thiscase, is not necessary that the device 10 display numbers or have theuser pick a set of numbers indicating a pass code but, instead, gesturesmight enable the user to define an action that will unlock device, suchas a swipe in one direction, two taps and a swipe in a particulardirection, etc. Of course, the same gesture could be used for differenttypes of operations in different modes of the device 10 or withdifferent applications implemented by the device 10, and any combinationof gestures might be used with any combination of applications or modesto enable different functionality or to enable the functionality of thedevice 10 be programmed in various manners. Once configured as such, theconfiguration data as selected by the user via the configurationapplication 158 on the computer 150 can be downloaded to the device 10,either wirelessly or via a wired connection, and stored in the memory 44thereof and then be used by the operating system of the device 10 tooperate.

One example of the manner in which the wristband device 10 could beprogrammed or could be manufactured to function as a default, isdescribed in more detail with respect to FIGS. 16-18. In this case, theattachable device in the form of a wristband device 10 implements amessaging routine that enables a user of the wristband device 10 toreceive, be notified of, and retrieve messages via the wristband device10 in a very discrete manner using natural motions. Generally speaking,FIG. 16 illustrates a flowchart 200 that may be implemented on aprocessor of the wristband device 10 to implement a messaging routineusing actions (e.g., movements of the wrist) detected by the wristbanddevice 10, as illustrated in one particular example in FIGS. 17 and 18.In this case, the wristband device of FIGS. 16-18 may be any of any ofthose described above with respect to FIGS. 1-15, in which the device 10may be attached to or disposed on a user's or wearer's wrist. Stillfurther, the messaging routine described herein may be used to display aprivate message on the display band at a position of the band that isless publicly viewable, in this case on the bottom or underside of theuser's wrist. Of course, the band orientation detection and calibrationroutine illustrated with respect to FIG. 11 may be used to enable themessaging routine described herein to display a message directly on thebottom of a user's wrist even when the band of the wearable device 10 isadjustable in length.

Generally speaking, the processor of the wristband device 10 may beprogrammed to perform a messaging routine in which the processor takes afirst action, such as causing a mechanical vibration action via the band10, upon receiving a message or a message notification signal, such asupon receiving an e-mail, a text message, a phone call, an alarm or analert from a calendar application, etc. Upon taking the first mechanicalaction, such as vibrating the band 10, the processor of the band 10 setsor starts a timer and waits a specific amount of time, e.g., threeseconds, five seconds, etc., during which time the processor detects ifa user or wearer of the band 10 takes a predetermined action, such ascausing a particular movement of the band 10, entering a particulargesture onto the band 10 via a touchscreen or other user interface onthe band 10, or any combination thereof. If the processor of the band 10detects the predetermined action (such as a predetermined gesture ormovement of the band 10) within the predetermined time period, theprocessor of the band 10 then displays an indication of the message,e-mail, alarm, or other incoming message or displays information about aphone call or other incoming message or signal on the flexibleelectronic display of the band 10 in, for example, a particularorientation and/or location on the flexible electronic display of theband 10.

This messaging routine can be very useful in providing notifications ofmessages or other incoming notices to a wearer of the band 10 in a verydiscrete or private manner that enables the wearer to selectivelyretrieve and view such messages using, for example, natural motions. Asa more particular example, FIG. 16 illustrates a flow chart that may beused by the processor of the band 10 to implement a messaging routine asgenerally described above, FIG. 17 illustrates the band 10 disposed on auser's or wearer's wrist when the wearer's hand is positioned palm down,as is normally the case with a hand that is resting on a table, a lap,or otherwise, and FIG. 18 illustrates the band 10 disposed on the wristof the wearer's arm when the wearer has moved his or her hand to placethe hand palm up so as to view the display portion of the band 10disposed on or adjacent the underside or inner portion of the wrist.

In this particular example, and as illustrated by a block 202 of FIG.16, the messaging routine 200 detects if the wristband device 10 hasreceived a new message or a notification of an incoming message of somesort. The message may be, for example, a text message from a phone, ane-mail message, a calendar alarm or alert or other notification, or anyother type of incoming message either from an exterior device (deliveredusing wireless communications to the band 10) or from anotherapplication on the processor or other element of the wristband device 10itself. If no such message has been received at the block 202, controlis returned to the block 202 for detection of a new message. However,upon receiving a new message or a notification of the availability of anew message, a block 204 detects the orientation and or positioning ofthe band device 10 and a block 206 detects if the band is in any of anumber of orientations or configurations that make it desirable tocontinue with the messaging routine. If, the wristband device 10 is inany of a particular number of orientations, such as being disposed withthe band 10 being bent around a wrist or other circular member and/orbeing disposed with the display being face up, as illustrated in FIG.17, then a block 208 generates a vibrational or other mechanicalmovement of the band 10 that can be sensed by the wearer to alert thewearer of the existence of a new message. In particular, the block 208may send one or more signals to a vibration element on the wristbanddevice 10 to cause a vibration of the device 10 that can be felt ordetected by the wearer of the wristband device 10. The vibrationalmovement may be a single vibration, a series of intermittent vibrationsin a particular pattern (e.g., two short vibrations, a long vibration, along vibration and two short vibrations, etc.) or any other desiredvibrational movement. Moreover, the pattern of the vibration mayindicate the type of message that has been received. That is, forexample, one vibrational pattern may indicate the receipt of an incominge-mail, another vibrational pattern may indicate the receipt of a textmessage and a still further vibrational pattern may indicate the receiptof a calendar alert. Of course, any desired vibrational pattern may beassociated with any type of message and this operation may be set up bythe configuration system described with respect to FIG. 15.

Generally speaking, the block 206 may detect whether the band of thedevice 10 is in one of any number of positions and/or orientations thatwill cause the device 10 to take the further messaging steps describedbelow. In particular, as one example, the block 206 may first determineif the band of the device 10 is connected in a circle or is disposedaround an element (such that the ends of the band are connected togetheror are disposed adjacent one another), thereby indicating that the bandis being worn. If desired, the routine 200 may only be implemented whilethe device 10 is being worn. Also or instead, if desired, themicroprocessor of the device 10 may detect if the device 10 is beingworn by a person (as opposed to being, for example, hung on a bar suchas a bike handlebar) by detecting a temperature measurement receivedfrom a temperature sensor disposed in the electronics unit 19 of thedevice 10, wherein the temperature sensor is disposed at a location onthe band to detect the temperature of the skin of a user. In this case,if the temperature sensor measures a temperature in a range that wouldbe expected (e.g., above 97 degrees Fahrenheit, for example) if thedevice 10 is being worn by a person, then the block 206 may detect theband of the device 10 as being in the correct orientation or location.Of course, other types of sensors, such as capacitive sensors, may bedisposed on the band to contact the wearer's skin and these othersensors may be used to determine if the band is being worn by a person.

Moreover, in addition or instead of detecting whether the device or band10 is being worn on a human, the block 206 may determine if the band ofthe device 10 is oriented in a particular direction or orientation. Asan example, the block 206 may detect if the band of the device 10 isdisposed in an orientation indicating that the band is being worn on awrist in which the person has their palm face down, such as thatillustrated in FIG. 17. Of course, the example orientation of FIG. 17 isbut a single example of an orientation that may be detected and used forimplementation of the further steps of the messaging routine 200, and awide range of orientations and positions may be detected as beingassociated with a position or location or orientation that leads to theimplementation the rest of the messaging routine 200 described herein.That is, the orientations of the band of the device 10 used in thismessaging routine are not limited to those of FIGS. 17 and 18. Moreover,the messaging routine 200 can be implemented without the steps of theblocks 204 and 206, meaning that the further steps of the messagingroutine 200 described herein could be implemented any time that amessage or signal is received.

In any event, if the block 206 detects that the band is not in one ofthe predetermined orientations or positions (e.g., the band is not beingworn by a user or is being worn but is not in one of a set ofpredetermined orientations), then a block 207 may display the message ornotice on the flexible electronic display of the device 10 in any usualor desired manner, such as in the manner shown in any of FIGS. 14A-14E.However, as noted above, if the block 206 detects that the device 10 isin a particular use and/or orientation, a block 208 then causes the bandor a portion of the band to vibrate in a particular pattern, such as aparticular pattern associated with the type of message or incomingsignal received.

A block 210 thereafter (or contemporaneously) starts a clock or othertimer within the electronics unit of the band. Thereafter, a block 212again determines the current location or position of the band and ablock 214 operates to detect or check for a particular predeterminedaction of the user via the band, such as particular movement of thedevice 10, a particular gesture entered into the device 10 via a userinterface on the device 10, etc. In one example case, the block 214 maydetect a particular, e.g., natural movement of the user's wrist, such asturning the wrist over to place the palm of the hand towards the user,e.g., the motion associated with a user looking at his or her innerwrist, such as that illustrated in FIG. 18. In this case, the block 214operates to detect the movement of the band or the new position ororientation of the band to determine if the band has moved in apredetermined manner or has been moved to a predetermined position. Inanother embodiment, the block 214 could detect if a particular gesturehas been entered into the band interface, such as a tap or a swipe or atwo finger pinch or any other gesture. If the block 214 detects thepredetermined movement or gesture or other action by the user, then ablock 216 displays an indication of the message (such as the messageitself) or displays a screen image provided for reading the message onthe display of the device 10. In the particular example beingillustrated in FIGS. 17 and 18, the message (such as a text message, acalendar notice, an e-mail, etc.) can be displayed on the displayportion of the device 10 disposed on or adjacent to the inner wrist ofthe wearer, so that this message or notice is only viewable to thewearer when the wearer has his or her hand in the general positionindicated in FIG. 18. In this case, for ease of viewing, the message orother information can be displayed in a landscape format as illustratedin FIG. 18. Of course, depending on the type of message, the message orscreen image provided by the block 216 could be displayed in otherorientations on the flexible electronic display of the device 10, suchas in a portrait view, or at an angle to the edges of the band of thedevice 10, to make the message more readable to the user or wearer ofthe device 10 based on the actual positioning or orientation of the bandof the device 10.

On the other hand, when the block 214 does not determine that thepredetermined action has taken place (e.g., movement of the band to apredetermined position or orientation, a gesture entered via the device10, etc.), a block 218 determines if the time-out period of the timerhas been reached. That is, the block 218 may determine if apredetermined time has elapsed since the block 210 set the timer and ifnot, control is returned to the block 212 to detect theposition/orientation of the band (or to determine if a new gesture hasbeen entered into the device 10). Of course, the loop defined by theblocks 212, 214 and 218 may repeat until the block 218 determines thatthe time-out period has expired without the predetermined action beingdetected at the block 214, in which case the routine 200 may end withoutautomatically displaying the message or notice of a message on the band10. In this case, the user may, at a later time, interact with thedevice 10 to retrieve the message using any known interface application,such as an e-mail, text message, calendar or other applicationassociated with the received message or signal.

As will be understood, the messaging routine 200 described above can beused to provide a very natural and discrete manner of receivingnotifications of messages and viewing those messages. Moreover, in somecases, the messaging routine 200 can provide discrete notifications andselective viewing of messages without any direct interaction with theuser interface of the device 10 by the wearer. For example, the wearerof the device 10 may be in a meeting or otherwise engaged inconversation or other activities and may receive a message, such as ane-mail, a text message, a reminder, a calendar invite or other notice,etc. In this case, the wearer's hand may be facing down or be in any ofa number of other various positions or orientations. However, instead ofthis message automatically appearing on the display of the device 10 onthe outside of the wearer's wrist, where this message may be noticeableto others due to a change in the display, the display becoming brighter,etc., the messaging routine 200 of the device 10 notifies the wearer ofthe existence of the message (and possibly of the type of message) bycausing the band of the device 10 to vibrate, which is generallydetectable by the wearer but not others. If the wearer is in a positionto or wants read the message, the wearer can simply move his or herwrist to a second predetermined position, such as holding his or herhand up, with the palm facing towards the wearer's face, within thepredetermined time from the onset or end of the vibration. Thisparticular motion is a very natural motion and does not appear out ofthe ordinary to others near wearer. If this motion is made within thepredetermined time from the onset or completion of the vibration, thedevice 10 then displays the message or notice to the user on theflexible electronic display of the device 10 at, for example, only theportion of the flexible electronic display disposed near or adjacent tothe inner portion of the wrist, which again is less viewable to othersin the room than on the outside wrist portion of the band. However, ifthe user wants to ignore the message, the user can simply not make thepredetermined motion within the predetermined time period, and themessage will not appear on the display of the device 10 until the usertakes some affirmative action to view the message, such as opening ane-mail, calendar, etc., application on the band 10 at a later time.

Of course, while the messaging content is described herein as comingfrom or via an application (such as an e-mail application, a textmessaging application, etc.) executed on the device 10, the messagecould be generated by or originate from an application executed on adifferent device, such as the wearer's phone, computer, etc., and thismessage could be wirelessly sent to and displayed (or not) on the device10 as described above.

Moreover, while not specifically illustrated in flowchart 200 of FIG.16, the user may take, and the device 10 may detect, other actions (suchas movements) made by the wearer to perform other functions inconjunction with the messaging routine 200 described above. For example,the wearer may wish to extend the time period for viewing the messageby, for example, moving his or her wrist back and forth (or taking someother predetermined action). In this case, the routine 200 may detectthis second type of motion and may reset the timer of the device, or mayset the timer to a different time (such as by adding 10 seconds) sothat, if the wearer takes the first predetermined action within that newextended time period, the message will be displayed on the inner wristportion of the display. Still further, while the routine 200 isdescribed herein as displaying the message on the portion of theflexible electronic display on the inner wrist, the routine 200 coulddisplay the message on any other portion of the flexible electronicdisplay, including on the entire display surface of the flexibleelectronic display.

Moreover, it will be understood that the actions taken by the user anddetected by the device 10 may include any types of actions, includingmovements of the device 10, gestures or other manual inputs entered intoa user interface on the device 10, a predetermined series of movementsof the band of the device 10, one or more movements of the device 10 inconjunction with a gesture or other interface interaction, etc. Stillfurther, while the specific example of FIGS. 17-18 detects the locationof a wrist with the inner wrist facing away from the user (such as thatassociated with a hand laying face down) as a position in which toimplement the selective delayed messaging notice functions, and detectsmovement of the wrist to an upright position in which the inner wrist ofthe band faces the user as an action associated with displaying themessage on the band 10, any other positions could be used as thepositions associated with or detected by the blocks 206 and 214 of theflowchart of FIG. 16.

The following additional considerations apply to the foregoingdiscussion. Throughout this specification, plural instances mayimplement components, operations, or structures described as a singleinstance. Although individual operations of one or more routines ormethods are illustrated and described as separate operations, one ormore of the individual operations may be performed concurrently, andnothing requires that the operations be performed in the orderillustrated. Structures and functionality presented as separatecomponents in example configurations may be implemented as a combinedstructure or component. Similarly, structures and functionalitypresented as a single component may be implemented as separatecomponents. These and other variations, modifications, additions, andimprovements fall within the scope of the subject matter of the presentdisclosure.

Additionally, certain embodiments are described herein as includinglogic or a number of components, modules, or mechanisms or units.Modules and units may constitute either software modules (e.g., codestored on a non-transitory machine-readable medium) or hardware modules.A hardware module is tangible unit capable of performing certainoperations and may be configured or arranged in a certain manner. Inexample embodiments, one or more computer systems (e.g., a standalone,client or server computer system) or one or more hardware modules of acomputer system (e.g., a processor or a group of processors) may beconfigured by software (e.g., an application or application portion) asa hardware module that operates to perform certain operations asdescribed herein.

A hardware module may comprise dedicated circuitry or logic that ispermanently configured (e.g., as a special-purpose processor, such as afield programmable gate array (FPGA) or an application-specificintegrated circuit (ASIC)) to perform certain operations. A hardwaremodule may also include programmable logic or circuitry (e.g., asencompassed within a general-purpose processor or other programmableprocessor) that is temporarily configured by software to perform certainoperations. It will be appreciated that the decision to implement ahardware module in dedicated and permanently configured circuitry or intemporarily configured circuitry (e.g., configured by software) may bedriven by cost and time considerations.

Accordingly, the hardware terms used herein should be understood toencompass tangible entities, be that entities that are physicallyconstructed, permanently configured (e.g., hardwired), or temporarilyconfigured (e.g., programmed) to operate in a certain manner or toperform certain operations described herein. Considering embodiments inwhich hardware modules are temporarily configured (e.g., programmed),each of the hardware modules need not be configured or instantiated atany one instance in time. For example, where the hardware modulescomprise a general-purpose processor configured using software, thegeneral-purpose processor may be configured as respective differenthardware modules at different times. Software may accordingly configurea processor, for example, to constitute a particular hardware module atone instance of time and to constitute a different hardware module at adifferent instance of time.

Hardware and software modules can provide information to, and receiveinformation from, other hardware and/or software modules. Accordingly,the described hardware modules may be regarded as being communicativelycoupled. Where multiple of such hardware or software modules existcontemporaneously, communications may be achieved through signaltransmission (e.g., over appropriate circuits, lines and buses) thatconnect the hardware or software modules. In embodiments in whichmultiple hardware modules or software are configured or instantiated atdifferent times, communications between such hardware or softwaremodules may be achieved, for example, through the storage and retrievalof information in memory structures to which the multiple hardware orsoftware modules have access. For example, one hardware or softwaremodule may perform an operation and store the output of that operationin a memory device to which it is communicatively coupled. A furtherhardware or software module may then, at a later time, access the memorydevice to retrieve and process the stored output. Hardware and softwaremodules may also initiate communications with input or output devices,and can operate on a resource (e.g., a collection of information).

The various operations of example methods described herein may beperformed, at least partially, by one or more processors that aretemporarily configured (e.g., by software) or permanently configured toperform the relevant operations. Whether temporarily or permanentlyconfigured, such processors may constitute processor-implemented modulesthat operate to perform one or more operations or functions. The modulesreferred to herein may, in some example embodiments, includeprocessor-implemented modules.

Similarly, the methods or routines described herein may be at leastpartially processor-implemented. For example, at least some of theoperations of a method may be performed by one or processors orprocessor-implemented hardware modules. The performance of certain ofthe operations may be distributed among the one or more processors, notonly residing within a single machine, but deployed across a number ofmachines. In some example embodiments, the processor or processors maybe located in a single location (e.g., within a home environment, anoffice environment or as a server farm), while in other embodiments theprocessors may be distributed across a number of locations.

Some portions of this specification are presented in terms of algorithmsor symbolic representations of operations on data stored as bits orbinary digital signals within a machine memory (e.g., a computermemory). These algorithms or symbolic representations are examples oftechniques used by those of ordinary skill in the data processing artsto convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art. Asused herein, an “application,” an “algorithm” or a “routine” is aself-consistent sequence of operations or similar processing leading toa desired result. In this context, applications, algorithms, routinesand operations involve physical manipulation of physical quantities.Typically, but not necessarily, such quantities may take the form ofelectrical, magnetic, or optical signals capable of being stored,accessed, transferred, combined, compared, or otherwise manipulated by amachine. It is convenient at times, principally for reasons of commonusage, to refer to such signals using words such as “data,” “content,”“bits,” “values,” “elements,” “symbols,” “characters,” “terms,”“numbers,” “numerals,” or the like. These words, however, are merelyconvenient labels and are to be associated with appropriate physicalquantities.

Unless specifically stated otherwise, discussions herein using wordssuch as “processing,” “computing,” “calculating,” “determining,”“presenting,” “displaying,” or the like may refer to actions orprocesses of a machine (e.g., a computer) that manipulates or transformsdata represented as physical (e.g., electronic, magnetic, or optical)quantities within one or more memories (e.g., volatile memory,non-volatile memory, or a combination thereof), registers, or othermachine components that receive, store, transmit, or displayinformation.

As used herein any reference to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment”means that a particular element, feature, structure, or characteristicdescribed in connection with the embodiment is included in at least oneembodiment. The appearances of the phrase “in one embodiment” in variousplaces in the specification are not necessarily all referring to thesame embodiment.

Some embodiments may be described using the expression “coupled” and“connected” along with their derivatives. For example, some embodimentsmay be described using the term “coupled” to indicate that two or moreelements are in direct physical or electrical contact. The term“coupled,” however, may also mean that two or more elements are not indirect contact with each other, but yet still co-operate or interactwith each other. The embodiments are not limited in this context.

As used herein, the terms “comprises,” “comprising,” “includes,”“including,” “has,” “having” or any other variation thereof, areintended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion. For example, a process,method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements is notnecessarily limited to only those elements but may include otherelements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method,article, or apparatus. Further, unless expressly stated to the contrary,“or” refers to an inclusive or and not to an exclusive or. For example,a condition A or B is satisfied by any one of the following: A is true(or present) and B is false (or not present), A is false (or notpresent) and B is true (or present), and both A and B are true (orpresent).

In addition, use of “a” or “an” is employed to describe elements andcomponents of the embodiments herein. This is done merely forconvenience and to give a general sense of the description. Thisdescription should be read to include one or at least one and thesingular also includes the plural unless it is obvious that it is meantotherwise.

Upon reading this disclosure, those of skill in the art will appreciatestill additional alternative structural and functional designs forimplementing display features via a flexible electronic display on anattachable article as disclosed herein. Thus, while particularembodiments and applications have been illustrated and described herein,it is to be understood that the disclosed embodiments are not limited tothe precise construction and components disclosed herein. Variousmodifications, changes and variations, which will be apparent to thoseskilled in the art, may be made in the arrangement, operation anddetails of the methods and structure disclosed herein without departingfrom the spirit and scope defined in the claims.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A system, comprising: a flexible bandhaving a flexible substrate and a flexible electronic display, theflexible substrate having first and second ends, and the flexibledisplay disposed over a portion of the flexible substrate between thefirst and second ends; a display driver electronically connected to theflexible electronic display for providing image content to the flexibleelectronic display; a position detection element disposed on or near theflexible band; one or more processors coupled to the display driver; anda memory that stores an orientation detection routine that, whenexecuted by the one or more processors, operates to: instruct a user totake one or more detection initiation actions to activate the positiondetection element to determine a point on the flexible band using asignal from the position detection element, wherein the determined pointon the flexible band is disposed adjacent to a particular point on anexterior object when the flexible band is disposed around the exteriorobject, and calibrate the flexible electronic display so that thedisplay driver displays the image content via the flexible electronicdisplay at one or more positions based on the location of the determinedpoint on the band, wherein the orientation detection routine operates toinstruct the user to move or orient the flexible band based on an amountof overlap of the first and second ends of the flexible substrate. 2.The system of claim 1, wherein the position detection element comprisesone or more pressure sensors, one or more magnetic sensors, atouchscreen disposed on or near the flexible electronic display, and/ora gyroscopic element.
 3. The system of claim 1, wherein the orientationdetection routine, when executed by the one or more processors, operatesto determine the point on the flexible band by: using the signal fromthe position detection element by determining the amount of overlap ofthe first and second ends of the flexible ban; or using the signal fromthe position detection element indicative of a touch event applied tothe flexible band; or presenting a message to a user via the flexibleelectronic display to touch the flexible band at a position adjacent theparticular point on the exterior object; or presenting a message to auser via the flexible electronic display to touch the flexible band at aposition adjacent the bottom of the user's wrist.
 4. The system of claim1, wherein the flexible band and the position detection element areincluded in an attachable article.
 5. The system of claim 4, wherein thememory that stores the orientation detection routine is included in oneor more other devices in communicative connection with the attachablearticle.
 6. A method of calibrating a flexible electronic displaydisposed on a flexible substrate, the flexible substrate having firstand second ends, that is adjustably attachable around an exteriorobject, comprising: detecting, using one or more processors, a point onthe flexible substrate that is disposed adjacent to a particular pointon an exterior object when the flexible substrate is disposed at leastpartially around the exterior object, wherein detecting the point on theflexible substrate includes instructing the user to move or orient theflexible band in a particular manner based on an amount of overlap ofthe first and second ends of the flexible substrate; calibrating, usingthe one or more processors, the flexible electronic display based on thedetected point and on the amount of overlap of the first and second endsof the flexible substrate; and displaying image content on the flexibleelectronic display at one or more positions on the flexible electronicdisplay using the flexible electronic display calibrated based on thedetected point on the flexible substrate.
 7. The method of claim 6,wherein detecting, using the one or more processors, the point on theflexible substrate that is disposed adjacent to the particular point onthe exterior object includes: detecting the point on the flexiblesubstrate when the first and second ends of the flexible substrate aredisposed in an overlapping manner around the exterior object; and/orusing one or more pressure sensors to detect the point on the flexiblesubstrate; and/or using one or more magnetic sensors to detect the pointon the flexible substrate; and/or using a touchscreen input device todetect the point on the flexible substrate; and/or determining theamount of overlap of first and second ends of the flexible substrate;and/or determining the point based on a location of a touch eventapplied to the flexible electronic display; and/or presenting a messageto a user via the flexible electronic display to touch the flexiblesubstrate at a position adjacent the particular point on the exteriorobject.
 8. A system, comprising: a flexible band having a flexiblesubstrate and a flexible electronic display disposed over a portion ofthe flexible substrate, the flexible band having first and second ends;a clasping mechanism coupled to the flexible band that is adjustable soas to enable overlap of the first and second ends of the flexible bandby differing amounts; an electronics module electronically connected tothe flexible electronic display and attached onto the flexible band atone or more fixed locations for providing image content to the flexibleelectronic display, the electronics module including a processor, adisplay driver and a memory; one or more sensors disposed within theflexible band, the clasping mechanism or the electronics module; and anorientation detection and calibration routine stored in one or morememories that, when executed by one or more processors, operates to:instruct a user to take one or more detection initiation actions withrespect to the flexible band; determine a point on the flexible bandusing a signal from the one or more sensors in response to the one ormore detection initiation actions; and calibrate the flexible electronicdisplay so that the display driver displays image content via theflexible electronic display at one or more positions on the flexibleelectronic display based on the determined point on the flexible band,wherein the orientation detection and calibration routine operates toinstruct the user to move or orient the flexible band in a particularmanner based on an amount of overlap of the first and second ends of theflexible band.
 9. The system of claim 8, wherein the flexible band, theflexible electronic display, the clasping mechanism, the electronicsmodule, and the one or more sensors are included in an adjustableflexible electronic display device.
 10. The system of claim 9, whereinat least one of the one or more processors is included in one or moreother devices in communicative connection with the adjustable flexibleelectronic display device, and wherein the at least one of the one ormore processors of the one or more other devices executes at least arespective portion of the orientation detection and calibration routine.11. The system of claim 8, wherein the processor of the electronicsmodule attached onto the flexible band executes at least a respectiveportion of the orientation detection and calibration routine.
 12. Thesystem of claim 8, wherein the one or more sensors includes one or morepressure sensors, one or more magnetic sensors, a touchscreen interfacedisposed on or near the flexible electronic display, and/or a gyroscopicsensor.
 13. The system of claim 8, wherein the orientation detection andcalibration routine, when executed by the one or more processors,operates to determine the point on the flexible band by: using thesignal from the one or more sensors by determining the amount of overlapof the first and second ends of the flexible band; or using the signalfrom the one or more sensors by determining a location of a touch eventapplied to the flexible electronic display.
 14. The system of claim 8,wherein the orientation detection and calibration routine, when executedby the one or more processors, instructs the user to take the one ormore detection initiation actions with respect to the flexible band byinstructing the user to touch the flexible band either at a positionadjacent to a particular point on an exterior object or at a positionadjacent the bottom of the user's wrist.
 15. The system of claim 8,wherein the one or more sensors is disposed in the clasping mechanism.16. The system of claim 1, wherein the orientation detection routine,when executed by the one or more processors, operates to calibrate theflexible electronic display so that the display driver displays publicimage content via the flexible electronic display at one or morepositions and displays private image content via the flexible electronicdisplay at one or more other positions based on the location of thedetermined point on the band and based on predetermined settings storedin the memory.
 17. The method of claim 6, wherein displaying the imagecontent comprises displaying public image content via the flexibleelectronic display at one or more positions and displays private imagecontent via the flexible electronic display at one or more otherpositions based on the location of the determined point on the band. 18.The system of claim 8, wherein the orientation detection and calibrationroutine, when executed by the one or more processors, operates tocalibrate the flexible electronic display so that the display driverdisplays public image content via the flexible electronic display at oneor more positions and displays private image content via the flexibleelectronic display at one or more other positions based on the locationof the determined point on the band and based on predetermined settingsstored in the memory.
 19. The system of claim 16, wherein theorientation detection routine, when executed by the one or moreprocessors, either: operates to calibrate the flexible electronicdisplay so that the display driver displays the public image content andthe private image content on the flexible electronic display using adisplay screen having a fixed reference point determined based on thedetermined point on the flexible band; or operates to calibrate theflexible electronic display so that the display driver displays thepublic image content and the private image content on the flexibleelectronic display using a display screen centered on the determinedpoint on the flexible band; or operates to calibrate the flexibleelectronic display so that the display driver sizes a display screenbased on the distance from the determined point to a fixed position onthe flexible band.
 20. The system of claim 16, wherein the orientationdetection routine determines the one or more positions at which thepublic image content is displayed and determines the one or morepositions at which the private image content is displayed.
 21. Themethod of claim 17, wherein calibrating, using the one or moreprocessors, the flexible electronic display based on the detected pointincludes configuring the flexible electronic display to display thepublic image content and the private image content via a display screenhaving a fixed reference point determined based on the detected point onthe flexible substrate.
 22. The method of claim 17, wherein calibrating,using of the one or more processors, the flexible electronic displayincludes centering the public image content and/or the private imagecontent, via an electronics module, on the flexible electronic displaybased on the detected point on the flexible substrate.
 23. The system ofclaim 18, wherein the orientation detection and calibration routine,when executed by the one or more processors, calibrates the flexibleelectronic display so that the display driver displays the public imagecontent and the private image content via a display screen on theflexible electronic display having a fixed reference point determinedbased on the location of the determined point on the flexible band. 24.The system of claim 18, wherein the orientation detection andcalibration routine, when executed by the one or more processors,calibrates the flexible electronic display so that: the display driverdisplays the public image content and/or the private image content via adisplay screen centered at the determined point on the flexible band; orthe display driver sizes a display screen based on the distance from thedetermined point to a fixed position on the flexible band.